How much do these affiliations matter? https://

Quote:

---

How much do these affiliations matter?

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/stat...t-Mueller/

Mueller’s team has the legal right to register to vote with a party or by making personal donations. Such activities are protected under the Hatch Act, originally passed in 1939.

It’s also important to note that Mueller was prevented from considering political affiliation when putting together his team.

Both Justice Department policy and the Civil Service Reform Act "prohibit using political affiliation and may also prohibit using certain ideological affiliations in hiring and taking other personnel actions with regard to career attorneys," the department’s inspector general has written.

Moreover, the career attorneys on the Mueller team are bound by professional codes to pursue justice and rise above partisanship.

Every federal employee swears an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States" and "bear true faith and allegiance to the same." Lawyers practicing in the federal courts swear a separate oath "that as an attorney and as a counselor of this court, I will conduct myself uprightly and according to law, and that I will support the Constitution of the United States."

Brett Kappel, an attorney specializing in political law and government ethics at the firm Akerman LLP, said that in his experience, "Justice Department lawyers tend to skew towards the Democrats while FBI agents are overwhelmingly Republican. Both of them take an oath to dispense justice without fear or favor with regard to political party, and I’ve never seen anyone from either group act in a partisan way."

"I don’t think one should ever ask about party affiliation when it comes to prosecutors," Robenalt added. "They come in all stripes. The question is whether they are qualified — and as I understand it, the team assembled is highly qualified."

Robenalt said he wouldn’t advise young Justice Department lawyers to voluntarily eschew all political activity today for fear of getting attacked if they one day join a politically charged investigation.

"It is a First Amendment right and crucial to our democracy," he said. "My guess is most will stay away from politics, but our country was built on the idea of freedom of belief and expression."

One final point worth remembering is Trump's own history of donations to Clinton's U.S. Senate campaign (five, worth $4,100) and first presidential campaign (two, worth $2,300, though they were refunded in 2009.)

---