Whats behind Robert Muellers poker face
We have now entered the second phase of the Russia probe. In the first, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team, starting from scratch, gathered sufficient evidence to file felony charges against Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos.
Phase 1 has given Mueller leverage against higher-level targets, who must be wondering how much the special counsel already knows, and how much hes about to learn. Careful work may, eventually, enable him to secure evidence against the greatest target of them all: the president. In this second round, Mueller is holding all the cards and has the latitude to play them when and as he chooses.
The initial charges sent a message to the White House and former Trump campaign officials, who had tried to whistle their way past the graveyard, portraying the probe as lacking in substance and likely to be short-lived. The Oct. 30 flurry demonstrated that 1) people will be going to jail for a long time and 2) the probe is unlikely to stop short of the Oval Office. No more talk of fake news.
The sophisticated charges against Manafort and Gates, in particular, also revealed to veteran observers the meticulous professionalism and industry of Muellers squad, which is among the most formidable prosecutorial teams ever assembled. Further bad news for Team Trump.
From the public reports of potential criminal activity, it looks as though Mueller has set his immediate sights on no fewer than nine characters in Trumps orbit: Michael Flynn (father), Michael Flynn (son), Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Carter Page, Corey Lewandowski, Stephen Miller, Keith Schiller and Sam Clovis. And of course there are possible wild cards that have not come into general public view. (No one anticipated the Papadopoulos indictment.)
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/viewpoints-whats-behind-robert-muellers-poker-face/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=dbe175653f-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-dbe175653f-228635337
Sneederbunk
(14,300 posts)lapfog_1
(29,223 posts)from a Full House of guilty tRumpsters (money laundering, conspiracy)
to a straight flush of guilty GOPers (obstruction, treason, etc)
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)him a great deal of credibility. He is an expert. He's not correct yet that Rump will eventually fire Mueller, but plenty of time still ahead for that.
This is his very impressive bio at Lawfare.blog, where he is a contributor. (Lawfare itself is conservative leaning but honest and focuses mainly on national security policy and law.)
He has held appointments at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Rutgers Law School (Camden), the Georgetown Law Center, Berkeley Law School, the University of Pittsburgh Law School, and the UCSD School of Global Policy and Strategy.
He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney and Special Assistant United States Attorney, and prior to that held judicial clerkships with Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Judge Abner Mikva. He has written a series of op-eds related to the Mueller investigation.