[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #499 Guiltiany?

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Judge Wants to See Unredacted Memos Directing Mueller Probe (Courthousenews)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal judge said Friday he wants to see unredacted versions of the Justice Department memos setting the scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2016 election probe before deciding whether to toss charges filed against onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Judge T.S. Ellis III gave Justice Department attorneys two weeks to provide him with complete copies of two memos written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, one from May 2017, and the other, from August, that lay out the scope and ground rules for the investigation.

Ellis said he will determine whether the memos should remain under seal, or be made available to the public, once he receives them.

Manafort faces no charges related to the 2016 presidential election. He is accused in cases filed both in Alexandria, Virginia and Washington, D.C. of hiding the work he did for and the money he made from a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

In Virginia, he is also accused of concealing foreign bank accounts, falsifying his income taxes and failing to report foreign bank accounts.

In Washington, Manafort faces counts of conspiracy to launder more than $30 million, making false statements, failing to follow lobbying disclosure laws and working as an unregistered foreign agent.

But his attorneys argue that the charges should be dropped because they don’t stem from the matter Mueller was charged with investigating.

On Friday morning Ellis appeared inclined to side with Manafort’s defense team, pressing Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, who joined the case as counsel Thursday night, to justify the filing of the charges in the context of Mueller’s probe.

“I don’t see what the relation is … none of the information [in the indictment] has anything to do with the Russian government or the Trump campaign because all of the allegations long predate any contact [Manafort had] with the campaign,” the judge said.

Dreeben said the Justice Department granted Mueller the authority to investigate “links and possible coordination of individuals” associated both with the Trump campaign and Russia, and this made delving into Manafort’s past financial transactions relevant.

“We just want the full scope, your honor. Those leads that we investigate will help us understand who he knew, who he was paid by and who handled any money,” Dreeben said.

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Robert Mueller’s team just had a really rough day in court (Vox)

A federal judge expressed skepticism about special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-reaching probe Friday morning during a hearing related to charges Paul Manafort is facing in Virginia.

Judge T.S. Ellis III suggested that he suspected Mueller’s team only charged Manafort with 18 counts of bank fraud and other charges in Virginia as a way to “get” to President Donald Trump — and suggested Mueller shouldn’t have “unfettered power” to do that, NBC’s Ken Dilanian reports.

To recap: Manafort, who chaired Trump’s presidential campaign, has been indicted in two different venues — in Washington, DC, back in October, and on further charges in Virginia in February.

In Virginia, Mueller’s team has charged Manafort with five counts of filing false income tax returns, four counts of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud or bank conspiracy, related to his handling of money he made doing work for Ukraine’s government.

This was a hearing in the Virginia case, for which the trial is currently scheduled to take place in July. Manafort has filed a motion to dismiss this indictment — arguing that Mueller overreached his mandate by charging him with crimes unrelated to Russian interference with the campaign.

Judge Ellis suggested Mueller’s team just wants Trump’s impeachment

When Manafort’s team made this same argument in court in DC, the presiding judge, Amy Berman Jackson, seemed skeptical. (She hasn’t yet ruled on the motion, though she did dismiss an accompanying civil suit filed by Manafort.)

But Manafort may have found a more receptive audience with Judge Ellis, in Virginia, a 77-year-old Ronald Reagan appointee.

“I don’t see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate,” Ellis said, according to Politico’s Josh Gerstein. “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.”

Though Ellis didn’t issue a ruling, Brandi Buchman of Courthouse News reports that he asked to review an unredacted copy of a memo from last August, in which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate crimes related to Manafort’s Ukraine work. Mueller’s team revealed the memo’s existence in court filings, but the vast majority of it is redacted.

If Ellis does in fact end up dismissing Manafort’s Virginia indictment (and, for what it’s worth, many smart court reporters are skeptical that he ultimately will), it wouldn’t get Manafort completely out of the woods, as he’d still face charges in Washington. But it would be a dramatic defeat for Mueller, with major implications for his strategy as a whole — which, it seems, has relied heavily on bringing or threatening unrelated charges against Trump associates to try to get them to “flip.”

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Op vrijdag 4 mei 2018 19:23 schreef Montov het volgende:

[..]

Rosenstein heeft toch ook in het Congress verklaard dat Mueller andere criminele activiteiten mag opsporen die tijdens het onderzoek naar boven komen?

En op wat voor manier kan redacted tekst die scope verkleinen? Waarom is een begrenzing van de scope geheime informatie die initieel niet wordt vrijgegeven?

twitter:

johnson_carrie twitterde op vrijdag 04-05-2018 om 18:45:02 Guys. Let me tell you something: Sometimes a judge likes to bat around the government, like a cat with a toy. And then, he rules in their favor. reageer retweet

twitter:

joshgerstein twitterde op vrijdag 04-05-2018 om 18:40:58 I strongly doubt Ellis will dismiss the case or reassign it even. He did mention that possibility twice, but it wasn't clear how serious he was about it. I think DOJ would immediately appeal such order. I think he'll ultimately conclude that if May order was vague, August fixed. reageer retweet

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