A SHORT REPORT FROM MUELLER WOULD MARK THE END OF THE BEGINNING

…Robert Mueller’s investigation will go on for years after his report is published

There are a number of individuals whom it’s anticipated will still be indicted, but have yet to be.

It was made very clear that all the noise about Robert Mueller’s investigation beginning to start wrapping up, that is false.

Just look at what has happened since the beginning of the year:

• In January, Mueller extended the grand jury for an additional six months, and many pieces of the investigation will continue well past its conclusion, be it two weeks or two months from now.

• There are uncharged crimes, outstanding subpoenas, pending cooperation agreements and unresolved, possibly sealed cases, said Seth Abramson, a former criminal defense attorney.  To stop now, would seem to snipped the investigation in the middle, if Mueller’s report was issued imminently.

• If Mueller is about to shut down the investigation, as a slew of recent reports suggest, the question would be, why?

• Jonathan Meyer, a former Justice Department senior official, said, if the investigation is in fact ending, Mueller may be bending over backward to stay within the scope of his original mandate and make sure the probe doesn’t turn into a longer, more wide-ranging investigation.

• The issue is, “What is still outstanding?”

Take this for example:  Mueller issued a heavily redacted sentencing report on Michael Flynn in December.  In it, Mueller outlined the former national security adviser’s “substantial assistance” in the Russia investigation and 19 meetings with federal prosecutors.  The memo confirmed that the investigation was ongoing. It also revealed that Flynn assisted in a mysterious, unrelated criminal investigation.  It was significant enough that Mueller credited Flynn for his help in a blacked-out portion of the document.  At the time, former federal prosecutor and MSNBC contributor, Joyce Vance said: “Flynn’s deal strongly implies there is more to come from Mueller. The memo, with its many redactions, tells us something significant and important is coming, even though we don’t know exactly what it is.” 

Up to this point, there have also been no charges based on the lengthy cooperation of George Nader, the Lebanese American businessman who acted as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  Yet, Nader has been a long-time cooperator to the investigation.

Last month, Mueller also again delayed a sentencing hearing for Rick Gates, a top co-conspirator to Manafort, and Mueller told the court that Gates was still assisting the special counsel in several ongoing investigations.

In several cases, additional information could still flow to prosecutors, like the recently indicted Roger Stone, as well as Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty in December, and her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, who was charged earlier this month. Even Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen and former campaign manager Paul Manafort, they could both reveal new information after sentencing.

There are a number of other individuals whom many attorneys have anticipated would be charged, but have not yet been, including Donald Trump Jr. and Erik Prince, the founder of the former Blackwater contracting firm.

The conservative writer Jerome Corsi is the “most obvious example.”  Corsi even expects to be indicted by Mueller’s office on charges of lying to investigators. After two months of interviews with the special counsel’s office, Corsi said on his daily live stream that Mueller’s team said he would be criminally charged.  “I’m going to be indicted. That’s what we’ve been told. Everyone should know that,” he said.

If Mueller in fact has met his mandate, then what happens next?

Seth Abramson said, “We always assumed Mueller would prosecute any case brought during the investigation himself, but that was a presumption.”  Mueller has handed off cases to other prosecutors’ offices for months: The cases of Washington attorney Gregory Craig and Michael Cohen, they were sent to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for federal prosecutors to handle. Cases involving Tony Podesta and Vin Weber were also farmed out.

Former solicitor general Neal Katyal, who drafted the special counsel regulations, said in the New York Times that “a short Mueller report would mark the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.”

Katyal’s theory was that Mueller viewed himself as the chief architect of the investigation phase for a family of cases; he compared them to the Internet, “with many different nodes, and some of those nodes possess potentially unlimited jurisdiction.”

The report that Muller will submit to Attorney General William Barr will not detail each witness’s testimony, but Mueller’s decision to indict or decline to indict the subjects of the investigation.  He could file charges or unseal a large number of indictments at the close of the investigation, then let the Department of Justice prosecute them.

“Their powers and scope go well beyond Mr. Mueller’s circumscribed mandate,” Katyal wrote. “So, when Mr. Mueller turns in his report, do not assume that things are over.”

It ain’t over, til it’s over. 

“And the investigation of Donald Trump and his family and his businesses will go on for years after he leaves the White House.”

Copyright G. Ater 2019