Posted on 05/05/2018 5:13:50 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Special counsel Robert Mueller is used to getting kid-glove treatment. That changed Friday in a federal courtroom in Virginia, where Judge T.S. Ellis directed a blunt challenge to the Mueller team prosecuting former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on charges of tax and bank fraud, some of which date back to 2005.
“I don’t see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate. You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” Judge Ellis told Michael Dreeben, who was representing Mr. Mueller in court. “What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.”
Judge Ellis won’t win a diplomacy-in-judging prize, but his sharp words expose a central problem with the evolution of the Mueller probe. Though he was appointed to investigate collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, Mr. Mueller’s indictments thus far have concerned other matters—lying to the FBI, or in Mr. Manafort’s case actions relating to his business with Ukraine.
Mr. Manafort’s team wants Judge Ellis to throw out the charges on grounds they exceed Mr. Mueller’s original mandate. And the judge’s questions leave the Mueller team in a difficult position. Essentially Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors now have to argue that even if they violated the Justice Department’s rules, it shouldn’t matter.
Mr. Dreeben of Team Mueller responded that the indictment doesn’t exceed the special counsel’s mandate, but the judge wants to see specifically the full and unredacted August 2, 2017 memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein saying what Mr. Mueller could pursue. The judge put it this way: “What we don’t want in this country, we don’t want anyone with unfettered power.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
L8r
Please, Lord, God Almighty Yehovah, protect and bless this judge and his family. Give him a intensified steel backbone. May he be fierce with traitors Mueller et al. Amen.
Great move and image with the shotgun on the bench bit.
Ellis was the Judge who threw Jefferson in jail. I think the Wikidopes were simply too dumb to know the difference.
Wondering that if, under the current circumstances, Mueller will be able to shield the documents by simply dropping the charges against Manafort? Would that fly... If Mueller pulled an ‘Emily Litella’? Never mind!
Glad The Lord knew the person I meant in my prayer. LOL.
This judge gets the John Sirica trophy for 2018.
Finally a judge who asked the right questions, and spoke the truth. The other judge was just a rubber stamp to give an illusion of legality to Mueller’s nefarious activities.
I thought he looked a lot like Jefferson. 8>)
Rosenstein will drop the charges against Manafort before releasing a true and unredacted copy of the mandate. It would prove that either Rosenstein made the mandate too broad to that Mueller exceeded it.
As did the follow through link when you click on his picture.
I thought he looked a lot like Jefferson.
Major LOL going on over here!
“...Wikidopes...”
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LOL, good work! LOVE that neologism. ;-)
LOL — It’s a Leftist Media conspiracy. I suspect Judge Ellis is amused by it.
If he pleads out, then he won’t be shot in front of a firing squad. Only “winged” in both knees. Then, told he can go home. Under his own power.
“I’d say Mueller has at best 30 days left.”.........
I agree! I read something similar about 3-4 months back, I’m still waiting.
Mueller and his merry band of bottom feeders need to be arrested for an attempted coup against the POTUS.
As long as they hit all three of his legs, I could live with that if he can. 8>)
Sorry for my comment
Already asked mods to remove.
Your comment is 100% right.
“Rosenstein will drop the charges against Manafort before releasing a true and unredacted copy of the mandate. It would prove that either Rosenstein made the mandate too broad to that Mueller exceeded it.”
Well put. Smart of Manafort to fight this, he may well be our new hero!
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