Posted on 05/04/2018 11:57:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has been appointed to preside over the special counsel’s criminal case against Paul Manafort. That is bad news for Robert Mueller.
At a Friday hearing, Judge Ellis accused the Mueller team of “lying” about the scope of its investigation. He asked for a copy of the unredacted “scope memo” penned by Rod Rosenstein, which Congressional Republicans have also sought.
The judge is particularly concerned that much of the information that forms the basis of the Manafort indictment was compiled by the Justice Department during the Bush and Obama Administrations, when Robert Mueller was the FBI Director.
I summarized the suspicious origins of this investigation here on October 3, 2017:
Comey was called to testify before Congress, and he confirmed that there was an investigation into Russian meddling but could not say much more. Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the probe on the advice of career ethics attorneys at the Justice Department.
Trump met with Comey on several occasions asking him to make public what he had told the president privately: that the president was not a target. Comey refused, and Trump fired him.
Comey then leaked notes of his meetings with Trump, he claimed under oath, to get a special counsel appointed. He did not say what he knew behind the scenes about the inner workings of Washington that convinced him his notes would have that effect.
The special counsel decision devolved to the second in command at the Justice Department, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller to investigate, “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”
Take it from a practicing lawyer: the “or” is never a throw in. The “and” is the bait, and the “or” is the switch. This investigation was never about the “and” – nobody ever thought that Russia coordinated with Trump to steal Podesta’s emails. This has been an inquisition from the start, to probe “links… between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign” – Paul Manafort.
Mueller had been Obama’s director of the FBI until 2013. More than likely, he had previously explored Manafort’s advocacy on behalf of Yanukovych in Ukraine, or at least his Russian ties. Mueller has a dog in this fight.
It is all too convenient and seems at some level to have been coordinated. But for what purpose?
As I explained here on November 2, 2017:
[T]his has always been about Paul Manafort. The FBI has been investigating him for the allegations in the indictment since Mueller was director. The matter went nowhere. Manafort operates like many Washington consultants, drawing huge fees from foreign governments. The fees are booked and reported according to arcane rules with broad possibilities for self-serving interpretations. Is that criminal?
Let’s put it this way: If all foreign payments that went to private interests in Washington were subjected to the same level of scrutiny as Manafort’s, everyone would be in jail. The Clinton Foundation would have its own cell block. That is why the FBI never went after Manafort before this. It would have opened a can of worms.
Whoever is behind this knew from the start that they could indict Manafort by dusting off some old FBI files and convening a grand jury. As of right now, the crime of the century about Russia stealing the election is really a stale investigation from the Obama Administration resurrected for dramatic effect.
There are major gaps, which happens when investigations from 2014 are retrofitted to look like a stolen election in 2016. The indictment covers Manafort’s consulting activity in Ukraine. The order defining the Special Counsel’s authority was to investigate, “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” Last time I checked, Ukraine is not Russia. The order had to say something about Russia but, as is now obvious, that was the bait and Ukraine would be the switch.
If Donald Trump had a competent Justice Department overseeing things, Mueller would have been clipped and cut and told to stay within the bounds of his investigative authority. Instead, the Attorney General has recused himself from the Russian investigation, for no good reason. The second in command is hiding in his office, scared of the powerful forces he in a moment of extreme spinelessness has unleashed. President Trump is in a chess match with a grandmaster, and his Justice Department’s first move was to cede his Queen.
Judge Ellis cited many of these irregularities at the Friday hearing, telling Mueller’s team, “You don't really care about Mr. Manafort. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
The Justice Department is not going to be able to obfuscate and slow walk with a federal district court judge as it has done with the United States Congress. It will have to provide some explanation.
Judge Ellis seems to be hot on the trail. Rosenstein obviously coordinated with someone to draft a scope memo that targeted Manafort to get to Trump.
The question I raised on October 2 remains unanswered: “It is all too convenient and seems at some level to have been coordinated. But for what purpose?”
Maybe Judge Ellis will get to the bottom of it. Calling the special counsel a liar was a great start.
Robert Mueller was made to look like a sleazy partisan hack.
He will have to admit his real target is the President or be forced to have the Manafort indictment transferred to the US Attorney for Eastern VA.
But if he does that, he loses his leverage to get his real goal, to oust Trump from office.
However it goes down, the jig is up.
Judge appointed by Reagan.....
Frau Mueller ist kaput!! He was basically charged with treason and sedition today. He should have heeded Giuliani but to be honest I am glad it has come to this. We want heads to roll!
He is and many folks don’t get it. I enjoyed sticking this in liberal’s faces today.
L8r
Watch this judge now change his mind after the deep state, and the Clinton’s go after him, and his family.
Last evening the democrat talking head whined on Anderson that she was really interested in seeing the money trail that she knew and/or strongly suspected existed between manafort and/or trump in 2010 and/or 2016 and the Ukrainians and/or the Russians. And/or pro-Russian Ukrainians (speaking Russian)... it all ties together...
This is not something you will be reading on msm today ( they’re still stormie)
....but it doesn’t matter....
...because THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING NOW!!!....IT BEGINS!.....( publicly)
...and someday soon the low information crowd will wake up and wonder what’s going on?.....why are people being arrested?
MSM will have heck trying to play catch up!
Well, we need to pray against that!
This judge, from what I hear, is highly respected.
Regardless, as this bubble breaks, the momentum will build!
That means Mueller was conflicted. He head a definite, obvious conflict.
Under the Special Counsel law, 23 CFR 600.3:
(b) The Attorney General shall consult with the Assistant Attorney General for Administration to ensure an appropriate method of appointment, and to ensure that a Special Counsel undergoes an appropriate background investigation and a detailed review of ethics and conflicts of interest issues.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.3
Did Rosenstein do that? I highly doubt it. The entire appointment process happened in 2 days. Rosenstein just chose him, appointed him, and that was that.
So his appointment was illegal, just on that basis alone. He would not have passed through a potential conflicts review, if Manafort was named anywhere in the scope memo.
And we haven't even talked about ethics! The Great Patriot Louie Gohmert released a devastating memo detailing Mueller's rotten ethics. It is brutal, and can be downloaded here:
https://gohmert.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398634
Rosenstein should be impeached for a variety of reasons, but this one above, failing to vet Mueller, should be a big one.
The judge merely stated that the king (Mueller in his own mind) doesn’t have any clothes on. Seems like I can recall a children’s book about something similar. Mueller has to be crushed by what the judge said. First, because it is true, and second, because his “Mr. Clean” reputation just got publicly flushed down the toilet into the sewer where it belongs.
No external power could have destroyed the mighty Roman Empire. The Roman Empire destroyed itself from with.
Such is the way of mighty civilizations. They commit suicide.
Whether or not internal moral rot, decay, and corruption will destroy the mighty United States of America and the American Dream, the great hope for all the people of the world, remains to be seen.
We will soon know.
My suspicion, too. The Judge's comments are two weeks in advance of Mueller's required response and then a ruling. That is plenty of time for the DOJ and the FBI to dig into the Judges background and find every pressure point for him and his family.
We could have gone after Obama like this with multiple real issues such as eligibility, identity theft, association with domestic terrorists, campaign money laundering, voter fraud…
My prayers for the health and safety of Judge Ellis....
He is a sleazy partisan hack
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