- Apr 3, 2003
- 26,164
- 11,418
- 76
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Libertarian
The special counsel has spun a web of investigations that draw closer to Trump every day.
By Matt Ford
December 17, 2018
https://subscriptions.newrepublic.c...&cds_page_id=215290&cds_response_key=I8HNRARA
It’s been 18 months since Robert Mueller took over the Russia investigation, and still nobody really knows what he’ll do next. The Daily Beast reported on Thursday morning that the special counsel’s inquiry is entering a new phase focused on influence from Middle Eastern countries. Later that evening, The Washington Post reported that final sentencing for some of Mueller’s cooperating witnesses could indicate his investigation is nearing the end. Some have even speculated that the lack of charges against the Trump campaign itself may mean he hasn’t found anything worth charging.
...
Mueller himself has kept virtually silent about where his investigation is headed next or what form its conclusion will take, making him the most mysterious man in Washington. Unless he’s prematurely ousted by the president, the American people won’t find out what the special counsel is truly up to until it’s all over.
History shows why it’s wise to keep a White House investigation lean and focused. Throughout the 1990s, independent counsel Ken Starr probed every nook and cranny of the Clinton White House. His team investigated so many different purported scandals without resolution, such as the dubious allegations that White House adviser Vince Foster’s suicide had been a murder, that the American public rightly saw Starr as a partisan political actor. That perception contributed to Bill Clinton’s acquittal by the Senate in 1999 after the House impeached him for the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Mueller’s distribution of investigations to other federal prosecutors has had a multiplying effect on Trump’s legal peril. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is based in Manhattan, may now pose a greater short-term threat to the president than Mueller does. Their investigation into Cohen’s business dealings also found evidence of campaign-finance violations allegedly committed at Trump’s behest. For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding the special counsel, ordinary federal prosecutors in New York were the first to formally connect the president to criminal activity.
It may only get worse for Trump from there.
By Matt Ford
December 17, 2018
https://subscriptions.newrepublic.c...&cds_page_id=215290&cds_response_key=I8HNRARA
It’s been 18 months since Robert Mueller took over the Russia investigation, and still nobody really knows what he’ll do next. The Daily Beast reported on Thursday morning that the special counsel’s inquiry is entering a new phase focused on influence from Middle Eastern countries. Later that evening, The Washington Post reported that final sentencing for some of Mueller’s cooperating witnesses could indicate his investigation is nearing the end. Some have even speculated that the lack of charges against the Trump campaign itself may mean he hasn’t found anything worth charging.
...
Mueller himself has kept virtually silent about where his investigation is headed next or what form its conclusion will take, making him the most mysterious man in Washington. Unless he’s prematurely ousted by the president, the American people won’t find out what the special counsel is truly up to until it’s all over.
History shows why it’s wise to keep a White House investigation lean and focused. Throughout the 1990s, independent counsel Ken Starr probed every nook and cranny of the Clinton White House. His team investigated so many different purported scandals without resolution, such as the dubious allegations that White House adviser Vince Foster’s suicide had been a murder, that the American public rightly saw Starr as a partisan political actor. That perception contributed to Bill Clinton’s acquittal by the Senate in 1999 after the House impeached him for the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Mueller’s distribution of investigations to other federal prosecutors has had a multiplying effect on Trump’s legal peril. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is based in Manhattan, may now pose a greater short-term threat to the president than Mueller does. Their investigation into Cohen’s business dealings also found evidence of campaign-finance violations allegedly committed at Trump’s behest. For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding the special counsel, ordinary federal prosecutors in New York were the first to formally connect the president to criminal activity.
It may only get worse for Trump from there.
“Mueller” 
