Rep. Panetta knows Trump-Russia investigator, has faith he’ll do a good job

Congressman Jimmy Panetta said Thursday he has the highest confidence in former FBI director Robert S. Mueller overseeing the investigation into possible links between President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

Amid calls by Congressional Democrats and some Republicans to launch an independent investigation into the possible ties, justice department deputy attorney general Rod

Rosenstein Wednesday appointed Mueller, a Republican, for the job. Panetta said he met Mueller — who is widely respected by members of both parties — when he spoke at a Panetta Institute for Public Policy lecture in 2014.

"I think director Mueller is the right person for the job based on my personal relationship with him," Panetta told The Pine Cone. "I have the utmost confidence in his ability to determine what happened, seek the truth and make a determination based on that."

Panetta met Mueller while he was in Monterey with journalist Barton Gellman and former CIA deputy director Michael Morell for a talk entitled, "Security Versus Freedom — Sedition to Internment to Surveillance." Panetta's father, Leon, moderated the lecture.

"I was able to talk to him and spend time with him," the 20th Congressional District representative explained.

Drug investigations in the 1990s

Early Wednesday — before Rosenstein had announced Mueller's appointment — Panetta joined his Democratic colleagues in signing a petition to ask the House of Representatives to vote on legislation establishing an independent outside commission to investigate the Trump campaign. House Republicans had blocked the effort.

However, Panetta said he's satisfied with the decision to allow Mueller to lead the inquiry.

His impression of Mueller goes back to the late 1990s when Panetta worked in Alameda County as a prosecutor. At that same time, Mueller was U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, and some of the investigations Mueller's office was undertaking also involved Alameda County prosecutors.

"We were conducting major narcotics investigations," Panetta said.

While Panetta did not meet Mueller at the time, he got to know some of the attorneys who worked for him.

"They spoke very highly of him and his ability to lead that office," Panetta said. "He's a good guy. He's solid. And he's a straight shooter; when you ask him a question, he's going to answer it and explain it."

Republican President George W. Bush appointed Mueller as FBI director in 2001, while President Barack Obama in 2011 kept him as director for another two years past Mueller's 10-year term.

Despite calls from a few House Democrats, including Maxine Waters, for Trump to be impeached — even before a finding that Trump or his campaign have done anything wrong — Panetta, a former Monterey County Deputy District Attorney, said he would wait until passing judgment.

"As a prosecutor, I have learned you base the case on the facts," Panetta said. "And right now we are trying to gather the facts … and then we can make the determination as to what needs to happen after that."