The Special Counsel Is Fighting a Witness in Court. Who Is It?
WASHINGTON — For the past several months, journalists, legal experts and close followers of the special counsel’s investigation have been trying to uncover one particular secret about the inquiry: Is the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in a closed-door legal battle? If so, with whom?
In October, Politico reported that Mr. Mueller appeared to be in a secret fight with a witness who was refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. A CNN journalist reported seeing two of Mr. Mueller’s top prosecutors enter a courtroom in September to argue against lawyers for an unnamed client before a judge who deals with grand jury matters.
A confidential hearing in the dispute was held on Friday at the federal courthouse in Washington. One floor of the building was closed to protect the identities of the lawyers involved. But that failed to deter roughly a dozen reporters who were spotted rummaging around the courthouse trying to figure out who was involved.
Here is what we know, and do not know, about the battle:
What exactly is this fight about?
From the clues that have emerged, it appears that the dispute is about whether a witness can be forced to answer investigators’ questions. When witnesses refuse to cooperate, prosecutors often go to court to get a judge to send them to jail in order to pressure them to talk. Prosecutors are supposed to exhaust all other investigative avenues before doing this.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-special-counsel-is-fighting-a-witness-in-court-who-is-it/ar-BBR0uoL?li=BBnb7Kz
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Andrew Miller, a former aide to longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, met with FBI investigators in St. Louis, according to a court filing. Miller says he was “cooperative” and spoke with the investigators for about two hours. During the 2016 election cycle, Stone’s super PAC paid $9,000 to Miller’s business for consulting, according to Federal Election Commission data posted by the Center for Responsive Politics, though Stone says Miller only did minimal work for him.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/russia-investigations/#/people/amiller
A panel of federal judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on Thursday in a constitutional challenge to special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority to preside over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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The appeal was launched on behalf of Andrew Miller, a former associate of political provocateur Roger Stone, and steered by the National Legal and Policy Center, a well-funded conservative legal group with a deep history of mounting legal challenges against left-leaning organizations and Democratic politicians.
“Even if we lose this [appeals] case we will certainly bring it to the Supreme Court,” Paul Kamenar, an attorney for Miller, told ABC News after Thursday’s court appearance.
Miller is fighting a special counsel subpoena compelling him to appear before Mueller's federal grand jury and related attempts to make him testify, which also have been met with heavy legal resistance. In late June, Miller turned over requested documents to prosecutors, but he was also subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in the Russia probe.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/roger-stone-aide-prepared-supreme-court-battle-challenge/story?id=59069715
