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Mueller Sends More Cases To SDNY For Possible Prosecution

440px-Director_Robert_S._Mueller-_IIILost in the mix of Manafort and other news, there is a significant development in Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.  Mueller has referred a number of cases to the Southern District of New York for possible prosecution, including reportedly case involving longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and his work for his former firm, the Podesta Group and former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, a former partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.  It is not clear if charges would emerge from these cases but the referral further decentralizes the investigation.

 

I have previously written that I fail to see why Mueller has continued the prosecution of Manafort when he sent the Cohen allegations to New York. If anything, some of the Cohen allegations do touch on the campaign while the two cases in Washington and Virginia against Mueller are entirely separate from the original mandate of Mueller.

The new referrals reportedly deal with lobbying issues and the failure to register as foreign agents.  It is not clear however if the immunity deals struck for the Manafort trial and investigation would impair any prosecution against figures like Tony Podesta.

Indeed, in the end, new charges may be brought by the SDNY. What is curious about the referral is that some of these lobbying allegations center on Washington rather than New York.  It is not clear why the D.C. U.S. Attorney was not selected as the appropriate office.
The Podesta Group has long said that it was misled about its client’s interests and that it registered its work for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) with Congress. It said that it also had secured an outside legal consultant on the appropriate steps to take.
The ultimate significance of the referrals will only be known in time. These are very sophisticated players who, unlike Manafort, are known to be cautious in their dealings.  Another possible explanation could be that Mueller is trying to wind down his investigation by shedding collateral cases. That would be good news for the Administration, but again there are not much in these tea leaves to read on such issues.

 

56 thoughts on “Mueller Sends More Cases To SDNY For Possible Prosecution”

  1. Meuller is resorting in desperation to a ploy known as ‘if you can’t impress them with your briliance, baffle them with your BS.”

  2. At least Turley has stopped all pretense of being bipartisan. That’s a refreshing change over the last few months. You’d almost think he was pushing for a cabinet position, or maybe SCOTUS itself.

  3. “One can say that Javert is our conscience. The ever lurking presence of the law and our own condemnation. The tension between who we were and who we are and who we can be. Javert represents that inescapable, shameful past that forever haunts and persues one’s conscience. Javert is the man of the law, and… There are no surprises with the law. The principle of retribution is simple and monotonous, like Euclidean logic. It’s closed to all alternatives and shut up against divine or human intervention… Indeed, Javert represents the merciless application of the law, the blind Justice that in the end is befuddled by hope and the possibility of redemption without punishment.”
    ― Cristiane Serruya, Trust: Betrayed

  5. There is a cancer growing on America.

    That cancer is Robert Mueller.

    Whether the cancer, Robert Mueller, is malignant or benign awaits laboratory analysis.

    Malignancies must be excised.

    Benign tumors may be accommodated or excised for cosmetic reasons.

    I, for one, would excise the benign tumor with extreme prejudice for its malicious, fraudulent and dishonorable existence.

      1. Oh goodie. I’m so glad Mueller has found a crime! You liberals were so set on the “crime” of collusion by Trump so you have to come away with something. And the obstruction by Hillary Clinton and her gaggle of goons in the FBI and DOJ? Really, can we all be intellectually honest and say the Russians are having a field day watching America meltdown over this entire fiasco they created. This is how we got 9/11. D.C. eyes were off the ball and on that ridiculous impeachment proceeding that did nothing positive for this country. It only ratcheted up the hate between the parties.

        1. Suze – someone else found the crime and decided not to do anything about it. Mueller gloomed on to it in an effort to get at Trump. The only thing Mueller has found is witness tampering with someone who was not on the witness list.

    2. “That cancer is Robert Mueller.”

      Mueller is just a very large metastasis.

    3. Crazy George, nuttier than squirrel scat, at it again.
      Harmless, just ignore.

      1. One always has to ask who is the crazy one, the accuser or the accused? I don’t know about the latter but the former isn’t all there.

      3. Sounds like the left, actually. Just ridicule someone who has an opposing position rather than debate him/her on the issues.

        1. Crazy George thinks the wrong side won the Civil War.
          Hence the moniker.

          1. Wildbill, George has raised questions about Constitutional Law. I don’t remember him saying that the South should have won. Are you making things up again?

    1. Hand what off, a routine counter-intelligence investigation or a routine tax-fraud investigation?

      Why would routine counter-intelligence and tax-fraud investigations be weaponized and aimed at a duly elected sitting President?

      “Insurance policy.” “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” “…potus wants to know everything we’re doing.”

      1. Exactly. Curious that Manafort had been under FBI surveillance/investigation since 2014 or so, but the Obama intel community chose not to let Trump know.

        Carter Page had been an FBI informant since 2013, and again, the Obama intel chiefs chose not to inform the Trump campaign.

        Yet, strangely, both Manafort and Page ended up working on the Trump campaign and both were under FBI surveillance?

        It almost makes you wonder if the Trump campaign was being set up.

    2. This whole thing has a familiar ring…show me the man and I’ll find you the crime. Of course, Lavrentiy Beria said it in Russian.

  7. Podesta, they will throw in a little dirt towards him to deflect from the criticism of bias. It will not likely stick. Prosecutors do this little trick too, all the time

    1. Lock Podesta up?
      Lock Hillary up?
      Lock Comey up?

      Manafort is looking like the most likely guy to be serving time right now.

      As Flynn might have been had he not agreed to cooperate….

      As Cohen tries to play the same card against the guy he once would “take a bullet for for”.

      The Mueller investigation is scaring the hell out of Trump, that is obvious from the latest fit of hysterical tantrum tweets.

      I wonder why…

  8. “I have previously written that I fail to see why Mueller has continued the prosecution of Manafort when he sent the Cohen allegations to New York.”

    I think the obvious answer is that Muller believes Manafort knows about the primary conspiracy under investigation.

    1. Except that there is no ‘primary conspiracy’. Mueller’s association with Trump lasted less than 5 months and he’s on trial for business dealings which occurred prior to 2015.

        1. Dude, The Manafort indictment is public record and that indicates that yes the matter pre-dates Manafort association with Trump.

        2. What he’s on trial for is a matter of public record. As for the ‘primary conspiracy’, how long you planning on waiting with Sally in the pumpkin patch?

          1. Oh yeah the new “C” word for lefty loons: “conspiracy” Robert Muler gonna to save the lefties. He is the messiah. Lefty mantra” “Bob Muler is beyond reproach”

      2. Truth is you don’t know what Mueller has discovered so far.
        All you have is your fears of what he might have uncovered.

        In time we shall all know…

        1. ,Truth is you don’t know what Mueller has discovered so far.

          No, the truth is you keep hoping Sasquatch will grace us with an appearance.

          1. I don’t know what Mueller has.
            Neither do you.
            The only difference between us is that I don’t pretend to know.

        2. Hope springs eternal I guess. Bedtime prayers at night for lefty loons followed with dogged pursuit of lefty Russian hype stories on the morning. Hampster treadmill for lefty loons.

    2. The biggest truth that progressives ignore, as obvious as gravity: absolute, unequivocal, undeniable proof there is no criminal Trump collusion is that Rep. “Adam” Schifft-for-brains has not leaked it.

      If Vegas had odds for whether or not there is any shred of evidence of illegal Trump collusion, it would be million to one “nyet.”

      Progressive posters here like Joe missed the 9-12 month old DNC memo: faced with the truth that Dems lost the election fair and square (HRCs was the only Russian collusion), they switched from “collusion” to “obstruction.”

      The chances of an obstruction charge are worse than the aforementioned collusion, but that won’t keep progressives from gnashing their teeth and tossing dirt into their hair, crying, “Woe is us, woe to the universe!…”

      Please, do continue with your mass hallucination, Job, I mean Joe!

  9. Here’s my bet: Manafort is convicted and Trump, rather than issuing a pardon, commutes his sentence.

    1. You say potato I say potato….at the end of the day Manafort walks with Trump as his fail-safe option. And let’s not rule out jury doing the right thing when faced with burying a man in jail for life, or judge.

  10. This all makes the Sessions recusal, so early in the process, very strange. Pull a thread on the core basis of the investigation and we end up with taxi cab medallions. JT made a comment yesterday that Mueller was a bad choice for the IC but that he was independent would run an honorable investigation. Not an exact quote. Has JT ever opined on Sessions in the same way?

    The Sessions recusal almost seems to be part of the plan, but who’s plan? I can’t think of an AG that accepted the position and immediately took him/her self out of the picture on the #1 legal issue facing the President and his administration. Is Sessions so valuable towards whatever else he’s doing that Trump can’t lose him? It’s as though by not resigning, Sessions is functioning as a wall between the President and DOJ. Who is he protecting? Trump from Trump? Rosenstein (Mueller) from Trump? Republicans from Trump? What makes sense?

    1. Maybe he wasn’t involved in the primary conspiracy, so he’s protecting himself. He figures if he keep out of it. He will be exonerated.

      1. State for the record: you still believe evidence exists for Trump’s criminal Russian collusion, and Adam Schifft-for-brains has not leaked said evidence.

        1. Follow up Q Joe: if yes, what do doctors consider the current state of the art in medicines for such hallucinations?

        2. I certainly believe there is, just as much as you evidently believe there isn’t. But the purpose of the investigation is to get to the truth of the matter, apart from beliefs.

          1. And DNC Congress critter Schifft-for-brains has not leaked said “evidence?” Hahahahahahahahahahahah…………..

      2. Maybe he wasn’t involved in the primary conspiracy, so he’s protecting himself.

        What you’re implying is Sessions volunteered to serve in Trump’s army, knowing full well he would be sent to the front lines, and then refused to come out of his bunker during the attacks. There is no way Sessions is the coward you suggest. If Sessions believed for a nanosecond there was any illegal conduct by Trump, he would never have taken the job.

    2. A recusal is not an indicator of guilt. Recusals are required if there is any possible perception that the person might not be impartial. Sessions was a member of the trump campaign and therefore he, rightly, recused himself from any investigation of that campaign. Unlike the two AGs appointed by the previous administration who refused to recuse themselves despite obvious perceptions of a lack of impartiality in DOJ investigations, and clear evidence that they obstructed those investigations.

  11. Looks lefty loon regulars who frequent this blog do not want to touch good logical question laid out by Jon Turley. Yes it does seem curious why Muler stuck with the Manafort case and did not refer. My guess is that Manafort has resisted and resented Muler from day one and Muler has gotten personal by not referring and sought incarceration of Manafort. Trump is a fighter and he likes fighters. Manafort has picked up on this and has faith that fighting the Muler persecution will result in justifiable pardon in case of malicious prosecution.

  12. The smart money says it went to the Southern District of New York because Rosenstein and Mueller trust the staff attorneys there to do what they want when they want it done. Rosenstein will insist the U.S. Attorney recuse himself if he begins to make waves.

    1. DSS – it is hard to see how Rosenstein can get the US Attorney to recuse himself if Rosenstein won’t do it.

      1. The U.S. Attorney was stripped of his authority over his staff in re the Cohen case. There are procedures Rosenstein can invoke.

        I have little doubt this is all for show.

  13. It is difficult to get up early in the morning and open the blog and see photos of dorks like Mueller.

    1. No, it means Rosenstein is in charge of Mueller. This whole fan dance is Rosenstein’s.

        1. My best understanding is that Rod Rosenstein feloniously signed the affidavit(s) of evidence submitted to the FISA judge illegally requesting authorization to wiretap Carter Page. (It’s 1000% obvious to any independent thinker now that HRC, John Podesta, the DNC, the FBI, the MSM, and possibly even the CIA all conspired to setup Trump and/or his campaign to participate in an illegal or almost illegal act against HRC. Part of that setup was sending in a plant/Trump hater/Australia diplomat to get Page drunk and make a verbal report used to justify a wiretap.)

          Rosenstein’s illegal act was his signature, which is supposed to confirm to the judge that Rosenstein (among other felons like Comey, McCabe, Stryok, etc.) independently confirmed the attached evidence is accurate. IOW, the exact and polar opposite of the truth, which is that Rosenstein and his many DNC cronies set the whole thing up, Stryok’s so-called pre-election “INSURANCE POLICY” to politically destroy Trump.

          Lovers of the US, democracy, and US Republic can only hope and pray that Trump conducts this Symphony like Leonard Bernstein’s all time best NY performance: Coming soon are two reports we can only hope completely incinerate the last shred of DNC power, the FBI’s 2nd IG report (Re. dozens of FBI errors in their fake prosecution of HRC), and the Utah Federal Prosecutor Huber’s report (that report is apparently locked up like a drum, absolutely no leaks, possibly all LDS member attorneys, more on this in a moment).

          Trump shall hopefully orchestrate, like Leonard Bernstein at his peak, so that the above 2 reports are released exactly at the right time prior to the election, shining the most pure light on the above described crimes, destroying the DNC. I’d say mid October if he can stretch it out that far, and I think he can.

          This shall confirm the accuracy of the 2 reports: all MSM reporting (except Fox) after the above 2 reports shall comprise only claims that the reports are pure Trump lies and nothing else. The MSM won’t address anything actually in the reports because everything shall be the truth and unassailable.

          Romney/LDS footnote. IMO much happens behind the scene between Trump and Romney, who surely wins the Senate seat with over 90% of the vote, book it. I wonder about this….might Trump support Romney for the 2024 Potus election? In exchange, if Prosecutor Huber is LDS (I presume he is), then Romney could be now working with Huber as a go-between for Trump, to insure Huber’s investigation is locked up like a drum, possibly comprising only LDS members. I can tell you from 12 years personal experience, no one can keep a secret like LDS members.

          1. if you think signing off on warrants is a big deal for persecutors, im here to tell ya, it aint. thousands of bogus warrants a day being signed off on no problem.

            4th amendment hangs by a thread and the reality is that King George never hand a hundredth the power to invade the privacy of his subjects as the police state has over us

          2. I wasn’t talking about his linkages to culpability such as FISA. He’s definitely linked in that fashion. I was looking for a greater link or a person to person nature.

          3. Congratulations, you are the only one to come close to using democracy in it’s small ‘d’ application and Republic in it’ s large ‘R’ existence

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