Someone Will Get Busted For Something
August 12, 2017 at 2:54 a.m.
By Gary [email protected]
Frankly, if I was a betting man, I’d probably bet that special counsel Robert Mueller won’t find any “collusion” – however that is legally defined.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think Donald Trump might be in some legal jeopardy.
That’s because if you look at the team of investigators Mueller has assembled, you get the sense of just how wide-ranging this investigation will be.
Business Insider offered a rundown on the heaviest hitters.
There’s Michael Dreeben, one of the top criminal law experts in the federal government who has argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Andrew Weissmann, the guy who headed up the Enron Task Force. He busted 34 people in that one.
Jeannie Rhee resigned from Mueller’s prestigious WilmerHale law firm to join Mueller's team. She represented Hillary Clinton in a 2015 lawsuit that sought access to her private emails. She also represented the Clinton Foundation in a 2015 racketeering lawsuit.
James Quarles is another of Mueller's former WilmerHale colleagues. He served as an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.
Aaron Zebley is a longtime FBI staffer who spent years in the counterterrorism division as a special agent before becoming the agency’s chief of staff under Mueller.
Zebley worked on complicated investigations into terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Lately he’s been focused on cyber security.
Greg Andres, who just joined the team Aug. 1, is the 16th member. He oversaw the fraud unit at the Justice Department and managed a program targeting illegal foreign bribery.
Most recently, he was practicing white-collar criminal defense with David Polk & Wardwell, a New York based law firm, Reuters reported.
He was a prosecutor in Brooklyn where he busted an organized crime family.
Published reports indicate Mueller may have hired as many as 32 top lawyers to help him ferret out wrongdoing.
So what do all these folks have to do with Russian collusion?
Well, not so much, really, but if you look back at the performance of special counsels in the past, lots of times they don’t bust anybody for the crimes they were impaneled to investigate.
Fred Lucas, writing for the Daily Signal, did a nice compilation under the headline: “A Short History of Special Counsels and Presidents.”
In 1978, Arthur Hill Christy investigated an accusation that Hamilton Jordan, the White House chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter, had used cocaine. In 1980, Gerald Gallinghouse investigated accusations that Carter’s campaign manager used drugs. No charges were brought in either probe.
The Reagan administration was the subject of probes by several independent counsels.
Independent counsels were named to investigate Reagan’s labor secretary, attorney general, assistant attorney general and legal counsel in separate cases. None of the cases resulted in an indictment.
Then there was that whole mess during President Bill Clinton’s tenure in the Oval Office. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to look into the White House’s behavior with regard to firings in the travel office and improperly accessing FBI files – Travelgate and Filegate.
Nothing much came of that, but eventually the probe was expanded to look into whether Clinton lied under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
He did, and he got impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
Independent counsels also investigated Clinton’s agriculture secretary, interior secretary, a former chief of staff and a former labor secretary, but those probes did not result in indictments.
One independent counsel, David Barrett, secured an 18-count indictment against Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros for obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Clinton later pardoned him.
In 2005, Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from an investigation into who leaked the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame. His deputy, none other than fired-by-Trump James Comey, appointed Patrick Fitzgerald as special counsel.
Nobody was ever convicted of leaking anything, but Scooter Libby, an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, got busted for perjury. Later, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage admitted he was the one who leaked Plame’s name.
Many times, people get sucked in as these investigations expand beyond their original intent.
It looks like Mueller has assembled a team of lawyers capable of conducting a wide-ranging probe of all things Trump – not just Trump’s campaign ties to Russia.
At some point along the way, did Trump’s business dealings get a little shady?
Did Trump – or somebody in one of his companies – sell some New York real estate to some Russian oligarch? Did the Russian oligarch launder the money through an offshore account?
Is the grand jury impaneled by Mueller going to subpoena Trump’s income taxes?
Just this week it was reported that Mueller investigators searched the Northern Virginia home of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, in July. They took tax documents and foreign banking records.
Will he be indicted? Who knows?
Maybe Trump has led a squeaky clean business life and there is nothing to find no matter how many stones are turned.
But if you throw enough darts, sooner or later you’ll pop the balloon. So my guess is, with the team assembled by Mueller, they’re going to find a way to indict someone.
And it most likely won’t have anything to do with Russian collusion or the election.
Oh, and don’t hold your breath, because it could take a couple of years. But no worries, it should wrap up just in time for the next election.
Frankly, if I was a betting man, I’d probably bet that special counsel Robert Mueller won’t find any “collusion” – however that is legally defined.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think Donald Trump might be in some legal jeopardy.
That’s because if you look at the team of investigators Mueller has assembled, you get the sense of just how wide-ranging this investigation will be.
Business Insider offered a rundown on the heaviest hitters.
There’s Michael Dreeben, one of the top criminal law experts in the federal government who has argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Andrew Weissmann, the guy who headed up the Enron Task Force. He busted 34 people in that one.
Jeannie Rhee resigned from Mueller’s prestigious WilmerHale law firm to join Mueller's team. She represented Hillary Clinton in a 2015 lawsuit that sought access to her private emails. She also represented the Clinton Foundation in a 2015 racketeering lawsuit.
James Quarles is another of Mueller's former WilmerHale colleagues. He served as an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.
Aaron Zebley is a longtime FBI staffer who spent years in the counterterrorism division as a special agent before becoming the agency’s chief of staff under Mueller.
Zebley worked on complicated investigations into terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Lately he’s been focused on cyber security.
Greg Andres, who just joined the team Aug. 1, is the 16th member. He oversaw the fraud unit at the Justice Department and managed a program targeting illegal foreign bribery.
Most recently, he was practicing white-collar criminal defense with David Polk & Wardwell, a New York based law firm, Reuters reported.
He was a prosecutor in Brooklyn where he busted an organized crime family.
Published reports indicate Mueller may have hired as many as 32 top lawyers to help him ferret out wrongdoing.
So what do all these folks have to do with Russian collusion?
Well, not so much, really, but if you look back at the performance of special counsels in the past, lots of times they don’t bust anybody for the crimes they were impaneled to investigate.
Fred Lucas, writing for the Daily Signal, did a nice compilation under the headline: “A Short History of Special Counsels and Presidents.”
In 1978, Arthur Hill Christy investigated an accusation that Hamilton Jordan, the White House chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter, had used cocaine. In 1980, Gerald Gallinghouse investigated accusations that Carter’s campaign manager used drugs. No charges were brought in either probe.
The Reagan administration was the subject of probes by several independent counsels.
Independent counsels were named to investigate Reagan’s labor secretary, attorney general, assistant attorney general and legal counsel in separate cases. None of the cases resulted in an indictment.
Then there was that whole mess during President Bill Clinton’s tenure in the Oval Office. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to look into the White House’s behavior with regard to firings in the travel office and improperly accessing FBI files – Travelgate and Filegate.
Nothing much came of that, but eventually the probe was expanded to look into whether Clinton lied under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
He did, and he got impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
Independent counsels also investigated Clinton’s agriculture secretary, interior secretary, a former chief of staff and a former labor secretary, but those probes did not result in indictments.
One independent counsel, David Barrett, secured an 18-count indictment against Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros for obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Clinton later pardoned him.
In 2005, Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from an investigation into who leaked the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame. His deputy, none other than fired-by-Trump James Comey, appointed Patrick Fitzgerald as special counsel.
Nobody was ever convicted of leaking anything, but Scooter Libby, an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, got busted for perjury. Later, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage admitted he was the one who leaked Plame’s name.
Many times, people get sucked in as these investigations expand beyond their original intent.
It looks like Mueller has assembled a team of lawyers capable of conducting a wide-ranging probe of all things Trump – not just Trump’s campaign ties to Russia.
At some point along the way, did Trump’s business dealings get a little shady?
Did Trump – or somebody in one of his companies – sell some New York real estate to some Russian oligarch? Did the Russian oligarch launder the money through an offshore account?
Is the grand jury impaneled by Mueller going to subpoena Trump’s income taxes?
Just this week it was reported that Mueller investigators searched the Northern Virginia home of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, in July. They took tax documents and foreign banking records.
Will he be indicted? Who knows?
Maybe Trump has led a squeaky clean business life and there is nothing to find no matter how many stones are turned.
But if you throw enough darts, sooner or later you’ll pop the balloon. So my guess is, with the team assembled by Mueller, they’re going to find a way to indict someone.
And it most likely won’t have anything to do with Russian collusion or the election.
Oh, and don’t hold your breath, because it could take a couple of years. But no worries, it should wrap up just in time for the next election.
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