Power walks faster.

While shrouded in secrecy, the Mueller probe legal team’s membership has long been known. Made up of sixteen individuals — formerly 18, before a scandal hit that we’ll return to in a minute — they range from staff that Mueller has worked with before as director of the FBI, to others who might have special expertise useful in indicting Donald Trump. I won’t delve into detail about the investigation here. There’s more than enough press coverage of that.

What came to my attention, and is the subject of this article, is the clear disregard for race and gender equality shown by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in the disposition of his investigation. I, like others, appreciate Mueller’s dedication to the country. Few can dedicate decades of their lives to the nation like he has. From his time in Vietnam to his handling of the anthrax investigation to his leadership in the FBI, his stellar career in the civil service has spanned generations. However the time is right for a discussion of his legal team and its composition.

Simply put, the team is a clear and flagrant example of racism and sexism run amok.

Of the 18 original members of the Mueller legal team, 89% are white. This alone is shocking. According to the US Census Bureau, only 72% of the US population is white. While the majority of the United States remains white for now, the Mueller team takes a step too far with their peopling of the committee with whites at such a preposterously high rate. Furthermore, 78% of the team is male. And why wouldn’t it be? The Mueller team is led by a white man who enjoys his privilege. The overwhelmingly male composition of the committee speaks volumes about the resounding power of the patriarchy in our counterintelligence, justice, and law enforcement systems.

What’s more interesting are the exceptions to this white, patriarchal enterprise against the most notorious bigot in our nation’s history. Four of the legal team were women. The team actually lost one woman, Lisa Page, after she was discovered to have had an improper opinion toward Donald Trump during the course of the investigation. Of the three remaining women, two are intersectional in their identities: Zainab Ahmed and Jeannie Rhee are Asian Americans and identify as women, making them the only racial minorities on the legal team. It’s unknown whether the use of intersectional identity in the hiring of these two individuals was purposeful. Often, hiring a so-called “twofer” is used in order to minimize the possible disruptive impact of a more integrated business team. It’s hard to say in this case, but given the constitution of the rest of the team, I do not find it hard to follow the breadcrumbs.

The most problematic individual on the legal team, Lisa Page, one quarter of the women on the team, was terminated after she allegedly made improper comments about Donald Trump during the campaign. At the time, she allegedly was in an affair with another member of the legal team fired for the same reason, Peter Strozk, who had abandoned his highly successful wife, Associate Director of the SEC Melissa Hodgman, to have a relationship with another employee of the FBI. It’s been well established that workplace relationships under patriarchy are by nature exploitative. If the #MeToo movement hasn’t shown you that, you haven’t been paying attention.

It’s also been documented that the FBI is an organization that’s grappling with the rot of institutional sexism. What’s infuriating is that Mueller chose to fire both of the agents for their alleged bias towards a president who has shown no regard to women at all. How this is fair, or appropriate given the blatant sexist structure of the legal team, is anyone’s guess. But I suppose we can’t expect a proper and sympathetic reaction to this travesty of workplace romance with a cisgender white man at the helm of this investigation.

To an extent, Mueller exists as a victim of his own institution’s recorded biases. How can you think outside the box of race and gender if your entire professional life happens inside an organization of frightening racists? How can anyone step up and overcome their own implicit bias if they’ve been trained to systematically discriminate against black agents? The FBI isn’t alone in its disgusting racist tendencies. A lack of diversity threatens the country to its core, but agencies like the CIA continue to put their head in the sand with regard to diversity.

With that risk to national security in mind, I truly fear for the outcome of the investigation without a clear understanding of diversity. How can a team of mostly white men truly understand the damage that Donald Trump has done to the country with his hateful rhetoric? Indeed, how can a team of mostly white men adequately prosecute another white man when the stakes are so high? The crisis overtaking American politics could be scuttled without a clear path forward on diversity. If America continues to defend itself based only on experience and achievement, the country risks losing a key battle in the fight against discrimination.

A path forward exists, though. It requires bold action and full recognition of the current problems with the Mueller probe’s composition. The first step is for Robert Mueller to step down as Special Prosecutor. In his place, one of the two aforementioned women — Ahmed or Rhee — should be recruited for the job. Only a woman who has gone through such an illustrious career as these two women can adequately prosecute Donald Trump for his crimes against the country. Secondly, the new Special Prosecutor should immediately re-balance the team using a blind recruitment strategy. This will immediately result in a more diverse committee. Finally, the Special Prosecutor needs to undertake this action as quickly and as ruthlessly as possible, not allowing for any delaying tactics by naysayers and others who will likely try to undermine these maneuvers.

Our country’s future depends on the swift and decisive action of this Special Prosecutor’s office. But without a diverse legal team, the outcome sought by reasonable people the world over remains in great jeopardy.