Posted on 07/22/2018 7:17:48 AM PDT by markomalley
Something has been going on with Robert Mueller's investigation of people thought to have played significant roles in the Trump-Russia affair. The special counsel, assigned to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Trump," has been farming out seemingly important parts of the investigation to offices outside his own.
In April, Mueller referred an investigation of close Trump associate Michael Cohen to federal prosecutors in New York. This month, the U.S. attorney in Washington — not Mueller — indicted Maria Butina on charges of being an unregistered Russian agent. And also this month, when Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic Party and Clinton campaign offices, he immediately turned the case over to the Justice Department's National Security Division for prosecution.
Cohen is a key figure in theories of Trump-Russia collusion. In former British spy Christopher Steele's notorious dossier, Cohen was accused of holding secret talks with Russian officials in August 2016 to discuss "how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the CLINTON campaign and various contingencies for covering up these operations and Moscow's secret liaison with the TRUMP team more generally."
If that's not collusion, nothing is. Such activities, if they occurred, would be at the center of Mueller's jurisdiction. And yet Mueller handed Cohen off to the Southern District of New York.
Butina figures in theories that a wealthy Russian banker "illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency," in the words of a McClatchy report from January.
Again, such activities, if they actually took place, would clearly be in Mueller's bailiwick.
Finally, the indictment of the 12 Russian intelligence agents goes to the very heart of Russian attempts to interfere with the U.S. presidential campaign, the investigation of which is Mueller's responsibility. Yet once Mueller indicted them, he handed the case over to the Justice Department.
What is going on? I asked a few former federal prosecutors if they saw any messages in Mueller's move. The takeaway: These aren't encouraging developments for those longing for a big collusion/conspiracy/coordination indictment from Mueller.
"I think it proves that little if any of what Mueller's team has generated so far is linked to the special counsel's mandate," said Former Prosecutor 1. "Everything that is public so far could, should and typically is handled by either United States Attorney offices of jurisdiction; National Security Division attorneys, or even Criminal Division attorneys at Main Justice."
"I think Mueller doesn't have anything on collusion," said Former Prosecutor 2. "I think we would have seen it. I don't see anything that looks like there's a crime lurking — maybe he's got eight indictments under seal, but to me, it makes no sense. All of this says to me there is no there there."
Former Prosecutor 3 said the investigations passed off — Cohen and Butina — indicate the subject matter is "outside [Mueller's] jurisdiction."
Some former prosecutors drew a distinction between the Cohen and Butina cases, in which Mueller handed off the investigation to others, and the 12 Russians case, in which Mueller made the indictment himself and then handed off the prosecution. That could be because Mueller realized that his team, staffed with investigators, could not manage a complex prosecution in the courtroom.
"They don't have the bandwidth to handle a highly technical case like that," said Former Prosecutor 2. From Former Prosecutor 3: "Good investigators aren't good litigators, and very often the best courtroom lawyers aren't the best subject matter experts."
It has been widely observed that there is no way the 12 Russians — government intelligence officers located in Russia — will ever come to the United States for trial. And that has led some of the former prosecutors to suggest that if Mueller were serious about trying them, he would have indicted them secretly and then made efforts to nab them unawares. "Everyone who indicts international defendants like the 12 Russians would do so under seal if they were serious about prosecuting," said Former Prosecutor 1.
Still others saw the 12 Russians case as an illegitimate use of Mueller's power. Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who writes for National Review, called the case "nakedly politicized law enforcement."
"There is absolutely no chance any of the Russian officials charged will ever see the inside of an American courtroom," McCarthy wrote. "The indictment is a strictly political document by which the special counsel seeks to justify the existence of his superfluous investigation."
Finally, other legal types, including yet another Justice Department veteran, said moving the 12 Russians case to a highly secretive part of the department is a good way to make the case disappear. "If Mueller kept it in his office, people would ask what's going on with the case," said the veteran. "But when he gives it to the National Security Division, it falls off the face of the earth. It's a way of burying it."
Taken together, none of that points to the big collusion/conspiracy/coordination indictment of Resistance dreams. Such an indictment might still be on the way, of course — no one on the outside has a full picture of what is going on inside Mueller's office — but the signs don't seem to be pointing toward it.
Finally, all the handed-off cases raise questions about whether a special prosecutor was needed at all. Mueller clearly felt there was no need for a special prosecutor to pursue Cohen or Butina — and one could argue that the Butina case, at least, was closer to Mueller's core mission than the Paul Manafort prosecution. And in the 12 Russians matter, if a case that goes to the heart of the Trump-Russia affair can be fairly tried by Department prosecutors, it's reasonable to ask: Why was a special counsel appointed in the first place?
He’s handing off cases to spread the aircraft. Think Pearl Harbor. You take him out his little spiders keep working.
He’s handing off these cases because his team has looked like a bunch of amateurs in the one “Russian collusion” case where a Russian defendant is actually contesting the charges.
He’s dumping these cases before it becomes obvious that they’re losers.
He gets the glory for initiating them, some other poor slob is left holding the bag when it all goes south.
A derivative of the “greater fool” theory.
<><>"...proves that little if any of what Mueller's team has generated so far is linked to the special counsel's mandate," said Former Prosecutor 1. "Everything that is public so far could, should and typically is handled by either US Attorney offices of jurisdiction; National Security Division attorneys, or even Criminal Division attorneys at Main Justice."
<><>"Mueller doesn't have anything on collusion," said Former Prosecutor 2. "...we would have seen it. I don't see anything that looks like a crime lurking — maybe he's got eight indictments under seal, but to me, it makes no sense. All of this says to me there is no there there."
<><>Former Prosecutor 3 said the investigations passed off — Cohen and Butina — indicate the subject matter is "outside [Mueller's] jurisdiction."
So there.
With any luck Mueller will spend his retirement checks at the prison px.
Short Answer: Because there's no there, there.
In April, Mueller referred an investigation of close Trump associate Michael Cohen to federal prosecutors in New York. This month, the U.S. attorney in Washington — not Mueller — indicted Maria Butina on charges of being an unregistered Russian agent. And also this month, when Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic Party and Clinton campaign offices, he immediately turned the case over to the Justice Department's National Security Division for prosecution.
Mueller started transferring cases when he decided to grandstand on the first bunch of Russian cybertrolls and a Russian company that did not exist (Concord Catering) at the time of the alleged collusion. Mueller is thought to have done these indictments as a publicity stunt but he got his rear kicked by the Russian firm showing up in a US Court with their lawyers demanding the evidence used by Mueller against them. That wasn't supposed to happen.
So Mueller had three choices:
1. Turn over the evidence and suffer humiliation for how flimsy it was (Mueller said it would harm national security).
2. Withdraw the case, which would be a huge embarrassment to Mueller and his investigation and would most certainly be followed by calls from Congress to shut his office down.
3. Transfer the cases to other DOJ attorneys, run away, and escape blame.
Mueller chose No. 3 and is doing the same with other flimsy cases. His purpose has been to slow down Trump from indicting Rosenstein and others in the illegal spying of the President and to monitor what the President's team is doing in regards to the Hillary and DNC emails and servers as well as other things.
He’s burying them so no one can find out “there’s no there, there”. But the public impressions caused by the accusations remain,
I am guessing the lawyers working from r Meuller know the accused are innocent. They are willing to play the indictment game because they can claim they had no role. However, if they prosecute based on false or missleading evidence, they will be in the crime up to their necks. Hence, Meuller’s lawyers are keeping their hands clean. New prosecutors from other departments won’t know the evidence is false.
I believe that Mueller is worried that criminal charges will be thrown out of court for this reason and he will have no case. He's therefore casting off criminal charges for the Justice Department to prosecute. There is reason to believe that even then, all the charges can be dismissed.
Let someone else take the losses that come later...his political work is done just by making indictments. He’s rallying the Democrat base of crazies, taking over weekend news cycles, creating narratives, discouraging the lukewarm Republican voters. His work is entirely political, there’s no law enforcement aspect whatsoever.
Mueller was blind-sided.......egged on by the Magic Negro.
His whole history has been changing the narrative. Not attacks on our soil by al Qaeda... attacks were done by richard jewel.
hillary didn’t collude with the Russians by selling them dangerous amounts of Uranium ... it was Trump colluding...yeah that’s the ticket.
The most horrifying fact in this whole matter is...the media KNEW ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME.
In the beginning, I wondered why they kept asking about Carter Page. Nobody knew him, he meant nothing, yet they kept asking Spicer …”what about Carter Page?”
I totally believe media knew all along, but prayed that we would never learn the truth.
If the bastids pray at all.
If Mueller wasn’t so Vile and EVIL, he would pack up the office! But he’s just another disgusting Democrat with all the power to RUIN people, and that makes him happy!
Mule face went in with eyes wide open....he’s out to BANKRUPT, RUIN and DISCOURAGE ANYONE from working with Trump!
Dumping them to agencies that do not take the case to court, because there is no evidence. They learned that lesson with the first phony Russian indictments. They were not expected to be challenged and suffer disclosure of their evidence.
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