Tag: Mueller investigation

20 lies and alleged lies the Trump team has told in the Mueller probe, dissected

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, and hosts and guests on cable news shows reacted to the indictment of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone on Jan. 25. (Allie Caren, Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

The growing number of lies that members of President Trump’s team have admitted to or been accused of telling investigators leads to one big question: Why?

Why would these people risk jail time to tell lies if there wasn’t something significant being covered up? Many of them had to know exactly the stakes of lying to the government, and they did it anyway. Why take such a risk to protect … nothing?

It might be the defining question of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation — especially given that this is the predominant crime being charged and pleaded to. We still have no members of the Trump team charged with conspiracy. (Though just because there have been no such charges doesn’t mean they couldn’t be coming. Prosecutors have an incentive to charge smaller crimes before bigger ones and to keep their evidence under wraps.)

View the complete January 28 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: Barr Refuses To Commit To Recusing Himself

At today’s confirmation hearing, Trump’s attorney general nominee, William Barr, refused to commit to recusing himself from an investigation, would not give straight answers to important questions about Mueller’s investigation, and raised even more questions about how he would use his powers as attorney general. Here are the key takeaways:

Barr repeatedly refused to commit to recuse himself from an investigation, even if recommended by ethics officials.

    Barr: “At the end of the day I would make a decision.”

    Barr: “I am not going to surrender the responsibilities of the attorney general.” Continue reading “KEY TAKEAWAYS: Barr Refuses To Commit To Recusing Himself”

Russian lawyer at Trump Tower meeting charged in separate case

Natalia Veselnitskaya speaks to a journalist in Moscow in 2016. Credit: Yury Martyanov, Associaed Press

A Russian lawyer whose role in a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday with obstructing justice in a separate money-laundering investigation.

Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election when it was revealed that, in June of that year, she met with Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump campaign advisers after an intermediary indicated she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

[Read the indictment: United States vs. Natalia Veselnitskaya]

The indictment unsealed Tuesday relates to a different legal fight involving the Russian and U.S. governments and charges that Veselnitskaya made a “misleading declaration” to the court in 2015, as part of a civil case arising from an investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan into suspected Russian money laundering and tax fraud.

View the complete January 8 article by Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

‘Knock it off!’: Judge tears into Mueller-charged firm with a fiery exchange in open court

Judge Dabney Friedrich sparked a tense back-and-forth with the American lawyer for a firm charged in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation during a status conference on Monday.

Defense attorney Eric Dubelier, representing the firm Concord Management & Consulting, which is charged for it involvement in Russia’s troll farm activities aimed at influencing the 2016 election, had filed a harshly critical attack on Mueller as a part of his work for the client. Friedrich was not impressed.

“Judge slams defense lawyers for Russian firm charged by Mueller as ‘unprofessional, inappropriate & ineffective. ‘Knock it off!’ she added,” reported Politico’s Josh Gerstein, in an account matched by several other reporters in attendance.

View the complete January 7 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

These 2018 corporate scandals demonstrate why the new Democratic Congress must crack down on corruption

The headlines for white-collar crime this year have largely been grabbed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has uncovered a huge array of financial crimes in President Donald Trump’s inner circle

The headlines for white-collar crime this year have largely been grabbed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has uncovered a huge array of financial crimes in President Donald Trump’s inner circle. But though Mueller’s revelations have shocked the American public consciousness, they were probably not the biggest financial scandals of the year.

On Monday, David P. Weber, a law professor and certified fraud examiner who reviewed the Panama Papers and blew the whistleon investigative misconduct as an assistant inspector general for the Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote an op-ed for The Hill outlining some of the most significant corporate scandals of 2018 — and how they prove Congress needs to ensure greater oversight of the financial system.

Weber specifically points to the scandals at 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund accused of a $4.2 billion embezzlement and fraud scheme with help from legal and auditing firms and a Department of Justice lawyer; Operation Car Wash, the gigantic Brazilian money laundering scandal that has implicated hundreds of politicians including multiple presidents; and the ongoing revelations about how European banks involved in the Panama Papers scandal helped oligarchs and tax evaders steal money around the world.

View the complete December 31 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet.org website here.

Mueller fuels foreign lobbying crackdown

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has given federal prosecutors momentum to litigate alleged violations of what until last year was an obscure law governing foreign lobbying.

In the course of his now 19-month probe, Mueller has uncovered a web of alleged criminality linked to violations of a World War II-era law enacted amid concerns over foreign propaganda.

Mueller has obtained guilty pleas under the law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), from two of President Trump’s 2016 campaign aides, Paul Manafort and Richard Gates. Both pleaded guilty to charges linked to their lobbying work on behalf of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.

View the complete December 31 article by Morgan Chalfant and Alex Gangitano on The Hill website here.

We are former senators. The Senate has long stood in defense of democracy — and must again.

Dear Senate colleagues,

As former members of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans, it is our shared view that we are entering a dangerous period, and we feel an obligation to speak up about serious challenges to the rule of law, the Constitution, our governing institutions and our national security.

We are on the eve of the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and the House’s commencement of investigations of the president and his administration. The likely convergence of these two events will occur at a time when simmering regional conflicts and global power confrontations continue to threaten our security, economy and geopolitical stability.

It is a time, like other critical junctures in our history, when our nation must engage at every level with strategic precision and the hand of both the president and the Senate.

View the complete December 10 commentary by Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), William Cohen (R-Maine), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Al D’Amato (R-N.Y.), John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), David Durenberger (R-Minn.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Wyche Fowler (D-Ga.), Bob Graham(D-Fla.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Bennett Johnston (D-La.), Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), David Pryor (D-Ark.), Don Riegle (D-Mich.), Chuck Robb (D-Va.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), John W. Warner (R-Va.), Lowell Weicker (I-Conn.), Tim Wirth(D-Colo.) on The Washington Post website here.

Mueller’s Investigation Gets One Step Closer To Trump

Trump’s longtime lawyer and “fixer” — and a former deputy finance chair of the RNC — was sentenced to serve three years in jail, including for crimes committed at the direction of the president to influence the outcome of the presidential election, and lying to Congress to protect Trump. This is as far from a witch hunt as you can get.

Trump has tried to delegitimize Mueller and the investigation at every turn, but the facts are NOT on his side. As more information continues to come out, and Cohen says he will continue to cooperate, it’s clear Mueller still has more work to do.

Here’s the latest on Mueller’s investigation by the numbers:

Continue reading “Mueller’s Investigation Gets One Step Closer To Trump”

The Memo: Trump’s Mueller problems deepen, worrying allies

President Trump’s problems are deepening after a dramatic week in the Robert Mueller probe, and even his allies are worried about what might come next.

Trump has become increasingly enraged about the special counsel’s probe after a week in which his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and affirmed his full cooperation with Mueller.

Mueller also stepped away from a cooperation agreement with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, accusing Manafort of lying. And the author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi publicized a draft plea agreement with Mueller, even as he rejected that deal.

View the complete December 2 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

Mueller’s probe has produced a rogues’ gallery of liars

Two stunning developments in the special counsel’s investigation shed light on investigators’ focus on President Trump as a main subject of interest. (Video: Jenny Starrs /Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As special counsel Robert S. Mueller III moves toward the summation of his investigation — and whatever his eventual report produces — there is no escaping the sleaze factor that existed around President Trump before and during his campaign for the White House in 2016.

It was there in the presence of Paul Manafort, who arrived at the campaign in the spring of 2016 and lasted until embarrassing and continued disclosures about his past work with pro-Russian officials in Ukraine forced him to step aside, and whose recent plea agreement was tossed outthis past week because prosecutors say he has continued to lie to them.

It was there in the presence of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer, who did the deals and arranged the payoffs that were designed to suppress damaging allegations about Trump and other women during the final months of the campaign and whose new guilty plea about lying to Congress has put renewed focus on the president’s words and actions.

View the complete December 1 article by Dan Balz on The Washington Post website here.