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Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian intel officers slams into the law of unintended consequences
The American Thinker ^ | July 19, 2018 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 07/19/2018 6:39:32 AM PDT by Quilla

Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 officers of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, was purely for domestic propaganda purposes. The case was never intended to come to trial because it was presumed by Mueller that Russia would never extradite its own intelligence officers, and thus no holes would be poked in the purported evidence by defense counsel. Thus, the accusations in the indictment would be taken as dispositive by the mainstream media, and the theory that Russia was behind Donald Trump’s victory would gain support with an official imprimatur.

Mueller tried this before, with his indictment of Russian entities that supposedly supplied Facebook advertising, only to unexpectedly face a defense team hired by one of the entities, Concord Management. His response has been to delay and obfuscate, quite shamefully (dumping 4 terabytes of untranslated Russian documents in response to discovery requirements), and then pass off the prosecution to “outside prosecutors” so that his team can escape accountability for their phony indictment.

In his second round of indictments purely for show, Mueller tried to avoid the danger of a defense being mounted by making the indictments criminal and naming defendants that are real individuals who would face prison if convicted.

Of course, anybody with half a brain would see that once the United States legitimizes criminal indictments of foreign intelligence officers in this way, other nations would apply the same logic to our own intelligence operations. And the former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul (an Obama appointee) tweeted:

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mcfaul; mueller; russia; witchhunt
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The tweet:

Michael McFaul Retweeted Rick Petree

TASS-- an official agency of the Russian government-- has stated that the Russian authorities are seeking to arrest several US government officials in connection with alleged Browder money laundering scheme to help Clinton campaign. Sorry, but that is a very serious accusation.

1 posted on 07/19/2018 6:39:32 AM PDT by Quilla
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To: Quilla

Why would President Trump rule out extradition? Or rendition, for that matter.

We’re building bridges here.


2 posted on 07/19/2018 6:44:29 AM PDT by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: Quilla

Mueller expects the 12 Russian episode to go nowhere because of a lack of a extradition treaty. Trump and Putin could fix this, by drafting and signing a treaty rather quickly. Whether this happens or not....unknown. The other factor....if they did sign such a treaty, then you have to put it in front of the Senate. They would have to approve it. This might also prove to be a problem in getting it past them.


3 posted on 07/19/2018 6:46:17 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Quilla

Extradite Obama to Germany for illegally wiretapping Angela merkel’s cellphone.
And this is the nonsense that happens when you politicze counterintelligence


4 posted on 07/19/2018 6:47:32 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus (The trouble with socialism is that you soon run out of other people's zoo animals to eat.)
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To: Quilla

McFaul is the chief architect of Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia, a policy that diagnosed Vladimir Putin not as a dangerous foe of the U.S. but as a misunderstood statesman who had been alienated by Republican policies inspired by Ronald Reagan. -— pj media


5 posted on 07/19/2018 6:47:36 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Quilla
Team Mueller did not think their strategy through, and so, they opened another yuuge bucket of worms - I expect it to backfire BIGLY...
6 posted on 07/19/2018 6:48:00 AM PDT by heterosupremacist (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. - (Thomas Jefferson)
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To: pepsionice

There is one in place from 1999. Mueller was INVITED by Putin to come over to Russia and be part of the interview of the 12 Russian hackers. When questioned about it, Mueller and team said “No Comment”. They got called out.


7 posted on 07/19/2018 6:48:03 AM PDT by afterhoursarmory
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To: Quilla
TASS-- an official agency of the Russian government-- has stated that the Russian authorities are seeking to arrest several US government officials in connection with alleged Browder money laundering scheme to help Clinton campaign. Sorry, but that is a very serious accusation. Any Obama appointees or career Deep Staters, could be turned over or have their day in federal court here. They might get a better jury in Russia, is this turns into a Special Prosecutor thing with a grand jury.
8 posted on 07/19/2018 6:52:38 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; 2ndDivisionVet; azishot; ...

ruh-roh ping


9 posted on 07/19/2018 6:53:46 AM PDT by bitt (Obama was eloquent with his lies, ..Trump is brutal with his truth!)
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To: Quilla
Many are criticizing Rosenweasel for the timing of the announcement, and if the indictment package had any validity, it would never have been unsealed. Rumor has it that Trump set the timing of the Rosenweasel announcement of the “Twelve Russians” for some kind of strategic positioning in the run up to the Pooty-Poot summit. Stable genius?
10 posted on 07/19/2018 6:54:05 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: Quilla
From the article:

McFaul and his MSM allies are apoplectic (to the point of using the F-word in a Daily Beast headline) that president Trump has not ruled out extradition.

This places McFaul and the Trump-haters in the position of arguing that no rational leader would extradite his own country's foreign policy and intelligence officers. This means that Meuller's indictment was ridiculous.

If the 12 know there is no evidence against them, what is the likelihood that they (or any one of them) would challenge the indictment in US court?

11 posted on 07/19/2018 6:57:18 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory.)
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To: Quilla

This is also the same bunch that wants to question the interpreter at the recent meeting between PDJT and Putin.


12 posted on 07/19/2018 6:57:32 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Hey, Rocky--Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!)
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To: Quilla

Going on 2 years now Mr. Mueller and still NO WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION have been found.


13 posted on 07/19/2018 6:59:50 AM PDT by The Toll
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To: afterhoursarmory

It’s actually required by a treaty which got the Consent of the Senate:

https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123676.pdf

Russia (and the US) can ask for this process at any time, it’s not something that Trump can refuse.

If you read it, you can see that both the US and Russia can request questioning of suspects in criminal cases.

Of course Mueller won’t, because he doesn’t have any actual evidence and would look foolish when he asks one of the indicted Russians a question and they have an iron-tight alibi (i.e. I wasn’t working at GRU in this time period).

Mueller’s people get sloppy when they don’t think there will be any court cases where they have to present evidence.


14 posted on 07/19/2018 7:01:01 AM PDT by ContrarianView
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To: Quilla
Rosenstein should be charged with sedition. From a website called Truthdig....

“It is the president’s sole prerogative to formulate and implement foreign and national security policy on behalf of the American people. While his political critics are free to criticize this policy, they cannot undermine it without running afoul of sedition laws.

“Rosenstein, by the timing and content of the indictment he publicly released Friday, committed an act that undermined the president of the United States’ ability to conduct critical affairs of state—in this case, a summit with a foreign leader the outcome of which could impact global nuclear nonproliferation policy. The hue and cry among the president’s political foes for him to cancel the summit with Putin—or, failing that, to use the summit to confront the Russian leader with the indictment—is a direct result of Rosenstein’s decision to release the Mueller indictment when he did and how he did. Through its content, the indictment was designed to shape public opinion against Russia.”

15 posted on 07/19/2018 7:06:01 AM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: Quilla
I don't mind being accused of having a rampant case of "Yeah-But-Ism", but if this is agreed upon (exchange citizens for prosecution on the opposite country), where does/should it stop? Or, should we prosecute our own under obvious laws broken?

Hillary foreign donors
Hillary/DNC piping oppo-research expenses through Perkins-Coie
Barry using our money to impede Bibi's election
Barry interfering with Brexit vote and threatening the UK
Barry colluding with Iran, cash payments, hostage-ransom payments
Barry swapping 5 MB warriors out of Gitmo in exchange for traitor Bird-Brain-Doll
UraniumOne

Where does it stop? Let's start with prosecuting our own with our own laws and our own courts before coughing up citizens to a foreign justice system.

16 posted on 07/19/2018 7:08:57 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: Quilla

Bump!


17 posted on 07/19/2018 7:10:02 AM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
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To: The Toll

“Going on 2 years now Mr. Mueller and still NO WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION have been found.”

Thanks Jeff....


18 posted on 07/19/2018 7:12:47 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: SERKIT

Of course. It gave Putin the opportunity to expose another of the Clinton cronies, deep state rat Browder. All this was arranged in advance, not something Putin just thought up on the spot.


19 posted on 07/19/2018 7:20:50 AM PDT by bigbob (Trust Sessions. Trust the Plan.)
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To: xzins; Quilla; heterosupremacist
When they indicted the last set of "Russians", they fully and completely assumed none of them would show up, they would try them in absentia, convict them, wash their hands, and have a fake scalp in Mueller's belt. But Alas! An attorney for them did indeed show up and invoke discovery and when the Mueller team asked for a delay, the attorney demanded a speedy trial! Not only did they not get to hang their fake scalp, they had to turn over information to them to scrutinize for a defense, something I believe the Mueller team had not even thought of!

I found the entire thing hilarious!

This time, when they attempted to obtain a fake scalp on a different set of "Russians", one can only imagine the instructions to the group of them from Mueller in their meeting:

"DAMMIT! I want some Russian scalps to show the public! And this time, MAKE DAMN SURE you get people who are NOT under ANY circumstances going to show up or have their attorneys show up! Get me real Russian intelligence operatives! I don't want to hear a single Russian voice or representative of a Russian voice when we bring this indictment to the bench!"

20 posted on 07/19/2018 7:22:32 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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