With a Picked Lock and a Threatened Indictment, Muellers Inquiry Sets a Tone
Source: NYT
WASHINGTON Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.
The moves against Mr. Manafort are just a glimpse of the aggressive tactics used by Mr. Mueller and his team of prosecutors in the four months since taking over the Justice Departments investigation into Russias attempts to disrupt last years election, according to lawyers, witnesses and American officials who have described the approach. Dispensing with the plodding pace typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Muellers team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/mueller-russia-investigation.html
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)You don't pussyfoot around when your target is a Russian-installed president caught up in the largest scandal in US political history.
You employ the "Sean Connery in 'The Untouchables'" strategy and you accept no substitutes.
forgotmylogin
(7,528 posts)He was saying that they wouldn't have gotten a search warrant nor permission to enter forcefully (pick the lock) unless there was enough evidence of a crime and enough suspicion Manafort would try to destroy evidence.
Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)Until then, I feel like, with the help of American confederates known as the Republican Party, our country has been invaded and held captive by Russian interlopers.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)we just have to keep the refreshments stocked and the Chips and Salsa close by. And yes,the leadership of the GOP are complicit wanted a permanent majority even if it meant subverting the Constitution.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)And now, the r'puklican't party is the party of confederate wannabes.
SusanaMontana41
(3,233 posts)Unconscionable.
CrispyQ
(36,464 posts)Roy Rolling
(6,917 posts)He said (paraphrased) "You don't threaten, you act. You don't threaten to sue somebody, you sue somebody. You do it. That gets their attention."
Bob Mueller is "just doing it" while the targets of the investigation are all talk. He is so far ahead of them it should give every American hope justice will be served.
Much greater value in just serving the paperwork than telling them it's coming first and letting them prepare.
I hope Mueller is keenly aware that this is the most important thing he will do in his life.
byronius
(7,394 posts)SusanaMontana41
(3,233 posts)Stuart G
(38,422 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)been gathering (so far that is). Wait until they get all of the Facebook evidence. He is going to need to rent several warehouses.
bagelsforbreakfast
(1,427 posts)Imagine if they find a sled named "Rosebud" in one of them!
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)herding cats
(19,564 posts)Which I'm sure you knew, but others may not so I'm mentioning it here.
It was hilarious though! I adore Borowitz!
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)herding cats
(19,564 posts)We may be speaking of two entirely differently things I'm now thinking.
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)herding cats
(19,564 posts)This may be something entirely different than what you saw though. I saw another post in GD eluding to what you said which wasn't in reference to Borowitz satire I'm sure.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)Robert Mueller is renting a massive warehouse facility in suburban Virginia to accommodate the approximately forty cubic tons of evidence against Donald Trump that the independent counsels investigation is generating on a daily basis.
Employing over two thousand workers in a warehouse the size of seven football fields, the Mueller investigation has become the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Working twelve-hour shifts, the members of Muellers evidence-storage team rarely leave the warehouse, where the punishing task of filing mountains of evidence against Trump proceeds around the clock.
Its like a city all its own, one warehouse worker said. There are people working in the Michael Flynn section whove never met the people working in the Paul Manafort section.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/mueller-rents-giant-warehouse-to-store-evidence-against-trump
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)I was fooled...shame on me! The Onion always fools me too. I guess it was wishful thinking. Thanks for your efforts!
herding cats
(19,564 posts)It has to be believable.
Glad I could help!
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)From the Borowitz Report
not fooled
(5,801 posts)so sounds about right to me.
I just hope that a seasoned crook like Manafort hadn't already destroyed or secreted the evidence. Of course, the difficulty of hiding all the money he's amassed over the years by being a well-dressed thug for hire--so that it's absolutely untraceable--probably is his vulnerability. May it prove his downfall.
FakeNoose
(32,639 posts)Mueller - Bobby Three Sticks
Trump - Donnie Two Scoops
They have been used quite frequently on DU lately.