As special counsel Robert Mueller prepares a final report on his investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible Trump campaign complicity, two historic presidential inquiries offer distinct -- and clashing -- models.

UNLV professor Stephen Bates is one of three legal experts who filed a petition in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday asking for a decades-old Watergate document to be made public.

A question has loomed over Washington: What will the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, do when he wraps up his investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia and whether President Trump obstructed justice?

The Supreme Court says a grand jury can keep digging until “every available clue has been run down.” As a former lawyer on the staff of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, I hope that’s not Robert Mueller’s plan. If, as reported, he’s thinking about subpoenaing President Trump to testify , he should drop the idea. The rule of law is at stake.

Under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr in 1998, I helped draft what came to be known as the Starr Report: a summary of “substantial and credible information ... that may constitute grounds for an impeachment,” which 28 U.S.C. § 595(c) then required us to send to the House of Representatives. One of my colleagues in that endeavor was Brett Kavanaugh, the D.C. Circuit judge President Trump has nominated to the Supreme Court.

For President Trump, negative news coverage must be the handiwork of partisan enemies. Ironically, the intelligence agencies took much the same approach when they assessed Russian interference in the election. Though it got much less attention than the analysis of hacking, the report released on January 6 includes a lengthy discussion of the Kremlin-funded TV network RT. No less than Trump’s diatribes about “the dishonest media,” the agencies’ examination of RT serves to remind us that media criticism isn’t a job for the federal government.

In its 14th year, the Vegas Valley Book Festival is loaded with so many interesting writers and educators that whittling down your options will be excruciating. Here’s a look at five of the free talks taking place October 17 at Downtown’s Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth Street.