FBI -- Is Robert Mueller's failed leadership redeemable?

By R.T. Neary


Robert Swan Mueller III is a name which is familiar in these parts. His resume shows service as U.S. Attorney in Boston going back to 1982. Mueller built a larger part of his bio in this area, however, as a partner in Hale and Dorr, the Boston law firm which had its hand on the tiller of Massachusetts politics for years. A connection with them provides a strong weight-bearing beam in one's resume, and it is a sure-fire propellant to high political office, notwithstanding one's talents. Former Governors William Weld and Deval Patrick's undistinguished years in the state's highest office can certainly attest to this.

The state's Attorney General office also was always considered to be on a tether with Hale and Dorr. Former AG Martha Coakley gave evidence of these ties during her tenure of office from 1993 to 2007. Coakleys successor and current AG, Maura Healy, worked for Hale and Dorr as a part of her rapid ascent to her current position. She clearly has aspirations for higher office and is a Bay State media darling. being openly a lesbian and in a Massachusetts original: a same-sex marriage.

Robert Mueller masterfully built his resume to the point where he eventually ascended to the office of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He served from 2001 to 2013, before returning as a partner in an expanded Hale and Dorr law firm. Now in 2017, he has been plucked by the ruling anti-Trump establishment to fill the seemingly unfettered role as Special Counsel, one which has placed him on a collision course with the elected President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. His side-door entrance to such a powerful role makes a mockery of our Constitutional government.

The FBI in recent decades has been a far cry from the organization it has always been portrayed to be. Not only have there been many failures in carrying out their charge, but there has been outright scandal as well. The FBI historically was run with an iron hand by the legendary J. Edgar Hoover from 1924 to 1972. Blackmail was not beyond him, as JFK and the Kennedy family learned with his wire-tapping of some of their sordid affairs. These notably included liaisons with Marilyn Monroe, and all of this became public after Hoover's departure from the scene.

Image was vital in Hoover's eyes, and the FBI's reputation of infallibility was originally gained on the B/W movie screens of the 1930s and 40s, when "they always got their man." However, in recent years it has fallen short with the spotlight on the failed leadership level. Director Louis Freeh (July 1993 to May 2001) certainly left many unanswered questions about the perpetrators' successful planning and activities prior to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Any objective review of what the FBI overlooked shows dereliction of duty. America deserved better.

Robert Mueller and James Comey are two of the best examples of resume burnishing being the main goal – as both fell short as genuine leaders. They are personally very close, and each knows well the art of playing the inside game. Until mid-2016 both were usually described by the mainstream media (MSM) in glowing terms – including having a "sterling" reputation. Neither deserved any such accolade, although the MSM has recently softened their early criticism of Comey, which followed his Oct 2016 comments about candidate Hillary Clinton. James Comey, after being fired by President Trump, admittedly leaked classified data to a NY Times reporter in order to open the door for what proved to be the return of Robert Mueller. The MSM continues to elevate Mueller to superhuman qualities, and he obviously relishes it. His mission to remove President Donald J. Trump from office is transparent.


The FBI was inexcusably remiss in ignoring the Tsarnaev family with their plotting and pressure-cooker bomb assembling prior to the Boston Marathon tragedy on April 15, 2013. The bombing took the lives of 8-yr old Martin Richard and 2 other spectators at the event itself, as well as injuring hundreds of others. All of this blood-shedding could have been prevented had the FBI been alert. The fact that local authorities ignored what the Tsarnaevs were planning in politically-correct Cambridge, should not be any surprise. Chechens – at war with the Russians! That certainly evoked sympathy in these politically-correct collegiate environs, and essentially gave them a natural cover. But it was the Russians who specifically identified the Tsarnaev danger. Yes, these are the same Russians we equate with the MSM's favorite villain: Vladamir Putin. FBI Director Mueller tried to dance away from any FBI leadership negligence by claiming the Russian information and cooperation was not complete.

Former FBI agent and South Boston native John Connolly is most responsible for showing what can happen when politics holds sway in what is supposed to be a countervailing part of our society. The FBI in its early years took great pride in being free of any political influence. Connolly, though, was originally recommended to serve as an FBI agent by high Massachusetts political figures, including former U.S. Speaker of the House John McCormack. His subsequent involvement with fellow Southie native, the notorious James "Whitey" Bulger, found Connolly ultimately serving federal jail time, convicted in 2008 for racketeering and second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. The 77-yr old disgraced former agent was denied parole after a July hearing this summer, and obviously the FBI wants to put the entire story to rest.


It is somewhat ironic that John Shanley, disgraced former priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, was granted release from prison about the same time as former FBI agent Connolly was denied. Experts said Shanley was no longer deemed to be a threat to youth. This deplorable homosexual predator had been featured 3 times by the Boston Globe – headlined as "a street priest" doing great work in rehabilitating youth. Obviously. Globe reporters knew much about Shanley's homosexual involvement with youth for many years. Sadly, a large number in Catholic Church circles knew of his sinful and illegal misdeeds, as well. With Shanley having transported some of his youthful victims over state lines to a 95-acre farm he had in Vermont, there are questions how these actions escaped FBI attention.

When the entire sordid affair involving the homosexual predator priests in the Archdiocese of Boston was revealed by the Globe's Spotlight team, the cost of settlements reached into the millions of dollars. It caused the Archdiocese to become the target of real estate speculators. At least one church was bought and flipped in a quick sale at an obscene profit. Sights, however, were set on a real prize: the Caritas Christi Healthcare System with 6 good-sized hospitals.

The Coalition To Save Catholic Hospitals was announced on July 27, 2010 to protect the interests of long-time contributors to these Massachusetts Catholic hospitals. They never thought that later the Coalition would be asking the FBI to independently investigate what was glaring: blatant conflict of interest and the juggling of values in the fraudulent reporting of its financial condition. The Coalition challenged multi-billion-dollar venture capital company, Cerberus Capital Management Ltd. and the Massachusetts Attorney General in an attempt to prevent the acquisition of the assets of 6 Caritas Christi hospitals from the Archdiocese of Boston in a deal for over 900 million dollars. Cerberus, named after a mythical one-eyed dog guarding the gates of Hades, had no religious affiliation nor ever been in the healthcare field. They were venture capitalists and obviously had been given inside information on the Caritas hospitals' real asset value. An independent audit eventually proved that the system was actually profitable, contrary to the claims of being in dire financial straits. That was the claim on which the proposed sale was based. It simply was false.

Back on Jan. 23, 2009 Dr. Ralph de la Torre, new CEO of the Caritas Christi Health Care system, had given Obamacare an early boost when he wrote personally to new President Barack Obama that the Caritas system was going to undertake a $73 million upgrade. Caritas Norwood had received prestigious awards and was adding what would be described as "new world-class cardiac catherization laboratories." He surely knew the new President's mind on healthcare direction for this country. On Oct. 16, 2010 Obama would personally visit the de la Torre 6-million-dollar home in Newton and participate at a fundraiser, which the Boston Globe reported netted more than $900,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Committee.

Caritas CEO Dr. de la Torre was the one who made the initial contact with Cerberus and made a handshake deal to deliver the hospital system to them. He succeeded in doing so. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, representing the state as the defendant in the legal action to sell the Caritas system, had been the beneficiary of $23,000 in campaign funds raised by Caritas CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre at an event at his Newton home in her fall 2009 run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Edward M Kennedy. Yet, she would not recuse herself from involvement in the sale of the Caritas Christi hospitals. Completely ignoring the fact that the CEO had held a political fund-raiser specifically for her, Coakley maintained she was representing the public – and donors – throughout the process. She proved to be far from that – to the extreme. She represented Dr. Ralph de la Torre. He, in turn, would enrich himself immensely.

This was also a unique legal situation, as it would be the very first time a non-profit hospital system would be sold to a private firm operating for a profit. It told a great deal about the real worth of Caritas Christi. These non-profit Catholic hospitals went back almost 150 years, and those in the Coalition wanted, as donors, to present their opposition together with financial data. However, Coakley's political power held sway throughout the legal proceedings and at every level of the court system, right through the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court hearing. Martha Coakley held every trump card, and Dr. de la Torre remained smug throughout. He was in line to become CEO of a newly-created entity, the for-profit Steward Health Care System LLC owned by Cerberus.

The Coalition was treated gingerly, and it was not allowed to be a legal party – or a class. The FBI was then contacted by the Coalition for assistance in cutting through the obvious conflict of interest. The case named Caritas vs Coakley was a sorry example of the way our government should function. With the Coalition's findings and independent auditor's revelations, there clearly was fraud involved. It had become obvious that AG Martha Coakley and CEO Ralph de la Torre were in collusion – and in a clear-cut conflict of interest situation. Only a truly independent government agency could reveal this officially, as Independence was an imperative. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had originally been cut in that exact mold.

On January 26, 2012 the local office of the FBI was contacted by the Coalition To Save Catholic Hospitals. The complaint desk later returned the call, listened to a summation of the issues involved, and the steps taken by the Coalition. There was full understanding that the allegations were of "criminal fraud" based on a "conflict of interest," and that the issues were only of the white- collar crime nature. The Boston office stated that it would be referred to a "Public Corruption Squad." The FBI employee left it with, "We'll see if we can get to the bottom of this." Needless to say, they never did. In fact, it was cursorily handled from that point on, with subsequent FBI mistakes in names and other data. The Boston office, in reality, did almost nothing.

The Coalition had done a superior job in chronicling all the accounting data and listing discrepancies in Caritas Christi figures from those of the independent auditors. Ernst and Young L.P. the auditors, in a much-delayed release had a discrepancy of $97 million in their figures over what Caritas accounting showed. The Coalition made all of this publicly available. The AG office, legally representing the public, would never even meet or discuss these objections. The audit figures, despite double-talk by the Caritas officials as to the accounting systems they used being different, revealed the 6-hospital system was now operating 20 million dollars above the profit level on an annual basis. This was a swindle of donors amounting to about $ 900 million in value, and dwarfing Boston's famous Brinks robbery. The Caritas Christi hospitals were a prize being seized by insiders – those who clearly knew their real value.

Having been stonewalled at every turn from the Dept. of Public Health to the AG's office and the court system, as well as the MSM and the Boston Archdiocese, the last hope was a letter to the FBI Director himself. Robert Mueller was an individual who had a sound knowledge of Boston. Also, his reputation with Hale and Dorr had been as a specialist in the area of white collar crime. A 3-page formal letter with a careful outline of the situation and delineation of the facts was sent directly to FBI Director Robert Mueller in Washington, with a copy to Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent-in-charge of the FBI Boston office.

No reply – or even an acknowledgement – was ever forthcoming from either. Absolutely nothing! Both individuals soon moved on to further higher pursuits. Robert Swan Mueller III has a resume, which paints a different picture of him. as one who does not step away from pursuing wrongdoing where he finds it. Donors who helped build a Catholic hospital system over a century and a half, and then saw 900 million dollars of its worth turned over to a brand new for-profit venture would not agree. It was fraudulent. From these 6 former Caritas Christi hospitals, Cerberus started Steward Health Care LLC, and through additional acquisitions and mergers, it was announced in 2017 that it is now the largest for-profit hospital system in the country. And to think that Steward Health Care LLC was started literally with widows' mites, and that FBI Director Mueller apparently deemed himself too important to intervene in protecting good faith donors. On departing the FBI after 12 years, Director Mueller in a relatively short prepared address to colleagues included the word integrity three times.

Robert Mueller has risen from the ashes once again and may just be the most powerful individual on the national scene today. He came in a side door, after obviously having been selected by the establishment for the role of Special Counsel – and having waited in the wings. New Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ended up giving this political operative undeserved power – after a surprising recusal on any Russian investigation by AG Sessions. The Attorney General felt that he could not ethically become involved in any investigation of Russian election collusion, after failing to state that he had attended events which included a few Russian dignitaries. The extent and nature of any group conversation he had in no way tarnished Sessions objectivity with regard to the highly questionable allegations about Russian collusion in the election. Many Americans, including President Trump who had nominated former Senator Sessions, were dismayed by the AG's recusal. It was not necessary, but as former advisor to the President Steve Bannon said, "Jeff Sessions is a man of pure heart." The public should be genuinely alarmed, however, at what has followed.

In the role of General Counsel, Mueller has acted as though he is totally unfettered, hiring nearly a score of legal operatives, many of whom have contributed substantial sums to Democrat and Clinton funds. He has even hired his former FBI Chief of Staff, all with our taxpayer dollars. All the while, the murder of DNC employee Seth Rich, plus Hillary Clinton's questionable dealings – and the Clinton Foundation itself -are what should be the object of a substantial and thorough investigation. Sadly, for those in Boston who were involved in the Coalition To Save Catholic Hospitals, it seems to be another reflection of where Robert Mueller's real interests lie.

It is easy to become philosophical and visionary in times such as we find ourselves. We know we can't wallow in our thoughts, but we do.

No student of politics would deny that for decades the major powers on this globe have spied on each other. Of course, no available means and certainly not the internet have been excluded. President Barack Obama went far beyond the accepted norm by financing a fund with our tax dollars to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel. Certainly, that went beyond the pale, and it revealed much about the Obama views on both Zionism and his own role as U.S. President.


There still, however, is no evidence that the Russians actually affected the outcome of our Nov. 8, 2016 U.S. election of Donald Trump. Yet, surely there was monitoring, as we have done constantly to the Russians. Vladamir Putin, however, is claiming that currently we, through the MSM, are now suffering from "political schizophrenia." He is not far off. The constant barrage of BREAKING NEWS by the MSM of this "hacking by the Kremlin," however, has done us a great service by revealing the real power of the shadow government of the "Deep State," the "Wall St/Bankers alliance" and the many forces at play in affecting daily events. The NY Times even saw fit now to expose the sordid past of one of Hollywood's most rabidly anti-Catholic demigods, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The fact remains that Donald J Trump was duly elected the 45th President of these United States, whether the Establishment approves of it or not. The Constitution does, however, and in the final tally he had officially received 304 electoral votes. This brings us to what has to be called a silly question: After those polls closed on Nov 8, 2016, how many electoral votes were earned by FBI Director James Comey, or for another Obama appointee, Rod J. Rosenstein. And beyond those 2 sitting government officials, how many were received by an active law partner by the name of Robert Swan Mueller III?

Notwithstanding the final tally of electoral votes, which seemed to leave only New Hampshire's razor thin margin for Hillary Clinton highly questionable, Rod Rosenstein came in the side door to fill the vacant Assistant Attorney General position with Senate approval on April 25, 2017. He appointed Robert Mueller as "special counsel" on May 17, 2017 under statutory authority, amid cries from Democrats and the Left for impeachment of the duly-elected new president, Donald J. Trump. The wording of the Asst. AG's 3915-2017 included "any matter that arose or may arise ...," and this is as broad as a prairie. The word "integrity," familiar to Robert Mueller, keeps coming to the fore. All the ingredients for a "witch hunt," as President Trump labeled it in one of his tweets, are here. "Mission creep" is to be avoided like the plague that it is, and anything of this nature will certainly see the President exercise his Executive authority to remove this "Special Counsel" from the office. The statutory power allowed to Robert Mueller is subservient to the Constitution and President Trump shows no fear of the MSM or the well-known groups on the Left who would surely react with resounding self-righteousness.

Yes, Rod Rosenstein's order 3915-2017 entitled "Appointment of a Special Counsel" is elastic in that its scope includes "related matters." He also states that "Our nation is grounded in the rule of law...," so the public has a right to call for tight boundaries. That means a non-political effort by all members of the Mueller team.

The U.S. Constitution is still the ruling document of this land. Ben Franklin said it best, "as long as you can keep it." We must see to it that Special Counsel Mueller understands how profound these simple words are.


"In an ideal world," after concluding that there was no obstruction of justice and with the nation getting back to the ideals on which it was founded, Robert Mueller would not sit idle. He would thoroughly examine the facts about a sad event which transpired on his watch as FBI Director: the $900 million swindle of good faith donors who built a 6-hospital Roman Catholic healthcare system for over a century and a half in Massachusetts. The Bill of Rights and total Constitutional protection of bona fide donors of their time, dollars and widow's mites against those predators wielding big bank loans and power, was ignored.

The 50-billion-dollar Cerberus organization was well-known for leveraged buyouts including Chrysler in the auto industry, all the way to Remington in the firearms field. The activity of the firm to be acquired was not important, but rather its intrinsic monetary worth. CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre with MIT and Harvard degrees easily made the case to the one-eyed dog guarding the gates of Hades (Cerberus) that the Caritas Christi hospital assets were well worth the price he would negotiate. He had the ultimate inside view.

Leveraged buyout firms such as Cerberus are essentially in a shell game. Accounting moves are what they soon start making after a purchase, and this includes the spinning of assets by mortgaging them to separate corporations, some brand new. The newly-formed Steward Health Care LLC did exactly that in a business atmosphere which offered record low interest rates for borrowing. In a short period of time any money they invested was back in their own hands. Dr. Ralph de la Torre has amassed untold wealth in these 7 years since securing the deal to use the 6 Catholic hospitals as leverage in acquiring another 30. With 36 hospitals in 10 states now, Steward is not only the largest for-profit healthcare system, but is an example of what happens when government officials ignore the public for private gain. While not yet doing abortions in those 6 Caritas Christi hospitals, a nurse at St. Elizabeth's in Boston will route a patient to Planned Parenthood's facility a short distance away at 1055 Commonwealth Ave.


Still perched "in an ideal world," after completing an objective investigation of whether there is any real evidence of Kremlin involvement in the election of President Trump, Robert Mueller will move in another direction. After using our tax dollars in dispatching high-powered lawyers for work with the "golden showers dossiers," he'll acknowledge this episode and others were all fiction and return to the real world. Robert Mueller will seek instead to satisfy those ideals he outlined in his departing address from the FBI Director's post. He will remember that word "integrity" was mentioned 3 times in the well-delivered message. Private citizen Mueller will then have a chat with new FBI head Christopher Wray. In it he'll request that the acquisition of those 6 Caritas Christi hospitals by the multi-billion-dollar out-of-state Cerberus firm be given thorough scrutiny – and then nullified. It's 5 years since all the facts were given to the FBI, but they are in the files. When all is said and done, Caritas Christi will be back as an independent Catholic healthcare system – free of Cerberus, and treating their patients in an atmosphere likened to Heaven rather than to Hades.

Let's, just for once, not be forced to admit that we don't live "in an ideal world."

© R.T. Neary