On May 17th, Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, named Robert Mueller III as special counsel to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”  Only time will reveal whether Rosenstein’s decision was some brilliant political calculus, comeuppance for placing the blame on him for the Comey firing, or a general desire to do what is best for the country.

Meanwhile, though, this is a victory for everybody who does not already know the outcome.  That is to say, Trump, Pence, Bannon, and others surely know whether it is good or bad news, but for the rest of us who remain behind a veil of ignorance, it should be viewed as a victory.

For Democrats

Many Democrats remain suspicious of the role that Trump’s campaign played in the Russian interference of the 2016 general election.  This concern has only grown as key high-level Trump advisors, Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort, have been named as subjects of a criminal investigation. This has been a persistent charge for many months, but reached a boiling point in the last week as FBI Director James Comey was terminated and both Sarah Huckabee Sanders (White House spokesperson) and Donald Trump made statements that could be interpreted as citing the Russian investigation as a reason.  

Democrats will benefit by having an independent investigation into the charges that cannot easily be tainted by President Trump.  Mueller has a reputation for being outside of politics (serving both under Bush and Obama) and for standing up to the White House.  If the Trump presidency is illegitimate, this is likely to be the best avenue for demonstrate the charge, while simultaneously keeping some distance as to not make it appear to be a witch hunt (Trump tweets, to the contrary, notwithstanding). Finally, Democrats benefit legislatively from the potential crisis.  Being in the minority in both the House and Senate, they are unable to exert their will without filibustering, so any distractions that prevent legislative actions will have a secondary benefit of reducing the legislation that Republicans will pass.

For Republicans

The benefits for Democrats seem clear, but the benefits for Republicans might be greater.  With some notable exceptions, most Republicans have largely remained at Trump’s side.  However, as every media cycle continues to be dominated by the newest breaking scandal, many Republicans have grown weary.  Mitch McConnell dryly noted that “we could do with a little less drama from the White House.” The key point is that many of the Republicans gained election victories on the heels of healthcare and tax reform.  Possessing the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate, their constituents expect delivery on these promises.  Midterm elections are notoriously bad for the party in the White House, so Republicans may only have until 2018 to secure victories.  Each passing day, week, and month wasted answering questions about Mike Flynn, or revealing classified information to Russians, or firing Comey, detract from their ultimate goals.  In their ideal world, Trump would stay out of the spotlight and just sign bills that get sent his way with the occasional Supreme Court nominee.  

Trump remaining out of the limelight, however, is impossible given the persistent self-inflicted controversies.  Given that there will be major Trump-focused distractions from their agenda, Republicans now get the next-best possible outcome.  Rather than being forced into mental contortions to defend Trump or answer hypothetical questions about his guilt, Republicans get to sit back and say, “a thorough and independent investigation is being conducted and it would be irresponsible to comment until all of the facts have been weighed” and then move back to their agenda.  If Trump is vindicated, they win.  If Trump is condemned, it’s his own mess to clean up, rather than theirs.  

The American People

Finally, the American people will win.  A lot of people think that they know what happened or have lurking suspicions, but the truth is that outside of the principal players, nobody knows the full scope (if any) of the Trump campaign’s connection to Russian interference.  In a hyper-partisan world, we were unlikely to ever get to an objective picture of the Truth.  Even if a select committee is appointed, any conclusions will be immediately written off by the respective parties (consider, for example, the committees who looked into Benghazi).  With Robert Mueller, though, it isn’t so easy to do.  He has a vaunted reputation in DC from his work as FBI director under presidents Bush and Obama, but has also conducted thorough investigations outside of the FBI.  Most notably, he was hired by the NFL to look into their treatment of the Ray Rice incident.  After some 200 interviews and analyzing nearly 100 devices, he ultimately concluded the NFL had no access to the video before it went public — a victory for the NFL — but not without also identifying many problems inside of the NFL and highlighting the areas where they erred.  This sort of thorough, apolitical, objective investigation is exactly what the country needs in order to move forward. 

In summary, only time will tell whether Trump and his associates benefit from this appointment, but for the rest of us — those who aren’t privy to the secret inner workings of the Trump campaign — this is a victory, whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or just a regular American.