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babylonsister

(170,959 posts)
Sat Mar 23, 2019, 11:47 AM Mar 2019

Trump Defenders Underestimate The Mueller Report By Touting No Indictments


Mar 22, 2019, 11:21pm
Trump Defenders Underestimate The Mueller Report By Touting No Indictments
Charles Tiefer


The pro-Trump spin machine is out on the airwaves, touting that the just-completed Mueller Report recommends no new indictments.

For ten briefly-stated reasons, the Mueller action marks more of a beginning, than an end, to the search for wrongdoing in the Russia scandal.

First, there are very active continuing investigations. When special counsels complete their reports of their principal findings, that does not end the inquiries. Instead, the tasks for prosecutors and investigators are turned over to the continuing active investigations. In this instance, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has brought prosecutions already, like Michael Cohen’s, to build on. Matters within that U.S. Attorney’s broad jurisdiction will continue forward.

Second, it is pure spin to make the issue whether new indictments are in the report. Mueller may well think that the report should give an account of his findings. New indictments are not to be expected in a report on findings. Indictments come, when ready, from the grand jury, not in reports. Rather, indictments that are moving toward readiness would come out in the other investigations, like that of the SDNY.

Third, there is particular reason to expect evidence to come out about Trump and Russia. The former National Security Adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has pled to Mueller’s charges. But nothing further of what he knows has become public before now. There is every reason to expect that whatever limited Flynn evidence is revealed via Mueller's report, there will be further evidence at the highest level as Flynn becomes a witness for more forums.

Fourth, there are a host of witnesses whose cooperation can be expected from the pressures built up from the investigations. An example is Allen Weisselberg, the corporate finance officer who carried out Trump’s instructions within the Trump Organization. In the immediate aftermath of Cohen’s testimony, it was clear than Weisselberg has not been cooperating, and that he knows an enormous amount of the wrongful things Trump ordered. The report by Mueller hardly marks an end for the pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate. That pressure will build both from prosecutors and from Congress.

more...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2019/03/22/trump-defenders-underestimate-the-mueller-report-by-touting-no-indictments/?fbclid=IwAR0tHxTgzlkqnptPMuUZILlVJ68Jli8q2Ni7pXnjGIAYfitDqK0HiC0Vmew#42697427529a
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Trump Defenders Underestimate The Mueller Report By Touting No Indictments (Original Post) babylonsister Mar 2019 OP
They are still trying to make him the martyr. Thomas Hurt Mar 2019 #1
That's fine. Let them have their 'small victory'...I'd say that in fact this is no victory, but ... SWBTATTReg Mar 2019 #2
A good, common-sense analysis, which I hope will act as a fire extinguisher The Velveteen Ocelot Mar 2019 #3
+1000 Thekaspervote Mar 2019 #4
6 guilty pleas, 5 people in jail, all of the indictments, is a victory? louis-t Mar 2019 #5

SWBTATTReg

(21,856 posts)
2. That's fine. Let them have their 'small victory'...I'd say that in fact this is no victory, but ...
Sat Mar 23, 2019, 11:53 AM
Mar 2019

as others have said on DU, this is the beginning of the end for rump. The report will probably (IMHO) list future actions or actions that need to be taken and/or pursued. As posters have said earlier on DU, lots of investigations are still pending/ongoing out there.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,267 posts)
3. A good, common-sense analysis, which I hope will act as a fire extinguisher
Sat Mar 23, 2019, 11:55 AM
Mar 2019

on some of the hair that got lit up here on DU last night.

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