After almost a year, Mueller has offered no evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians. Aside from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a few minor and transitory campaign officials have been indicted or have pleaded guilty to a variety of transgressions other than collusion.
Ironically, the United States has often interfered in foreign elections to massage the result. Recently, Bill Clinton joked about his own efforts as president to collude in the 1996 Israeli election to ensure the defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu. “I tried to do it in a way that didn’t overtly involve me,” Clinton said.
.. In his search for Russian collusion, Mueller might also investigate Steele, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, and the Clinton campaign. All used Russian sources to leak unproven gossip and smears to the press in an effort to warp the 2016 election.In his search for obstruction of justice, Mueller might also investigate whether top DOJ and FBI officials deliberately misled the FISA court by withholding evidence that the Steele dossier was flawed. Did Justice Department officials inform the FISA court that Steele’s dossier was hired research paid for by the Clinton campaign? Did they tell the court that the FBI had stopped using Steele as a source because he purportedly leaked information to the media? Did they tell the court that Comey was on record as saying the Steele dossier might not have been credible?In his search for obstruction of justice, Mueller might also investigate whether top DOJ and FBI officials deliberately misled the FISA court by withholding evidence that the Steele dossier was flawed. Did Justice Department officials inform the FISA court that Steele’s dossier was hired research paid for by the Clinton campaign? Did they tell the court that the FBI had stopped using Steele as a source because he purportedly leaked information to the media? Did they tell the court that Comey was on record as saying the Steele dossier might not have been credible?.. In his search for felonious behavior concerning the leaking of classified documents, Mueller might determine:1) Whether Comey’s memos regarding presidential conversations, which Comey leaked to the press, were classified;2) Whether former top national-security and intelligence officials — among them John Brennan, James Clapper, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes, and Susan Rice — requested that the redacted names of surveilled Americans be unmasked, and whether officials then illegally leaked those names to the media;
.. 3) Whether FBI officials such as Comey and McCabe leaked confidential findings from their investigations to the press during the 2016 campaign and lied to investigators about it.
Trump attacks Mueller ‘witch hunt’ as WH source calls investigation ‘out of control’
President Trump reacted angrily Monday to news that federal agents had raided the office and home of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen — calling the action “disgraceful” and describing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as “an attack on our country.”
.. “It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt,” said Trump, who claimed that he had “given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel. They continue to just go forward … and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it’s much more than that. You could say right after I won the [2016 Republican] nomination it started.”
Trump also accused Mueller’s investigators of being “the most biased group of people [with] the biggest conflicts of interest” and said Attorney General Jeff Sessions “made a terrible mistake for the country” when he recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation last year.
A source close to the White House told Fox News’ John Roberts that the raid showed that the Mueller investigation “is out of control” and was a “demonstration of bad faith” on the part of the special counsel.
.. Cohen’s attorney, Stephen Ryan, said Monday’s raid was conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and was based at least partly on a referral from Mueller.
.. A source close to the Trump legal team told Fox News’ Catherine Herridge that the raid on Cohen was “aggressive” and designed to “squeeze the president.” The source, who has knowledge of talks between Mueller and the president’s legal team, added that the raid “puts a fork in” the prospect of Trump agreeing to be interviewed by the special counsel.
.. Under Justice Department regulations, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when his investigators uncover new evidence that may fall outside his original mandate. Rosenstein then would determine whether to allow Mueller to proceed or to assign the matter to another U.S. attorney or another part of the Justice Department.
.. “Why don’t I just fire Mueller?” asked Trump, repeating a reporter’s question to him Monday night. “Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens, but I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened.
“And many people have said, ‘You should fire him.'” Trump added. “… So we’ll see what happens … this is a pure and simple witch hunt.”
Rush Limbaugh: Mueller Wants to Nullify Trump’s $900M Tax Deduction — from 1995 — to ‘Ruin Him’
Limbaugh accused Mueller of seeking to “nullify” Trump’s 1995 IRS claim of approximately $900 million in operational losses in order to pursue a reclamation of the money with added penalties and accrued interest:
And these requests, the subpoena for documents from the Trump Organization, I ask you again, what has that to do with the campaign and with collusion and with the Russians? They’ve already been looking into Trump business in Russia with the Miss, what is it, USA, whatever his pageant is.
Do you all remember during the early days of the campaign there was news that Trump, in a tax return something like 20 years ago, took a $900 million deduction that was granted and survived an audit by the IRS? Now, I forget the details. It had to do with losses that he had incurred in that year in building things. It was around 900 or $920 million deduction. I’ll never forget when it was reported because most people will never come close to ever having that in a lifetime, and to have a guy personally write that much off?
… Anyway, I think Mueller wants that $920 million back. I think Mueller wants to prove that that was a faulty deduction. I think that they want to go back, they want to get Trump’s tax returns because they want to nullify that $900 million deduction, and then they want to collect 20 years of interest and penalties and wipe Trump out.
Limbaugh also challenged the pervasive framing of Mueller as an honorable man across the joint news media and political landscape:
We’ve been told as long as I have been aware of the name Robert Mueller, we are told that Mr. Mueller is a man of impeccable character, a man of refined tastes, a man of immense sophistication and qualification. The man was a judge, he ran the FBI, he is a fair person. He’s an all-round good guy. And in terms of people in Washington when it comes to the integrity, there are none with any more integrity than Robert Mueller.
Well, I’m sorry, but that doesn’t fit with what we see this man doing. And what I ask myself is, does Mueller ever get up and ask himself, “What the hell am I doing? I don’t have a crime here. I don’t have any evidence of a crime.” Does Mueller ever get up or does anybody on his team, do they get up in the morning and they ever ask themselves, are we really doing the right thing here in seeking to destroy an American citizen whose only audacious behavior is winning the presidency?
.. A man of honor and integrity, suggested Limbaugh, would not accept a limitless role to pursue the political destruction of President Donald Trump: “There aren’t any limits on this guy! There is no crime that he has been charged with investigating. He’s been given a free rein to go find a crime anywhere he wants!”
“We’re told this guy’s the best of the best,” said Limbaugh. “We’re told this guy, nobody could hold a candle to him in terms of honesty and integrity and character. Well, then how does somebody with all of those fine traits even participate in a sham like this?”
Mueller’s mandate to “investigate Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and related matters” — issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — lists no financial or temporal limitations. In addition to a nebulous scope, no specific crimes are listed within the mandate.
The Smear Campaign Against Mueller: Debunking the Nunes Memo and the Other Attacks on the Russia Investigation
When Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel in May 2017 to lead the inquiry into Trump campaign ties to Russia, leading Republican voices sang his praises, calling him a man of “uncompromising integrity,”2 with a “stellar” reputation3 and the “right credentials for this job,”4 who will conduct a “thorough and fair”5 investigation with “trust and confidence of the American people.”6 As Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn stated, “Robert Mueller is perhaps the single-most qualified individual to lead such an investigation…and he’s certainly independent.”7 Just a few months later, that attitude has changed.
.. Individually, these allegations are unfounded, as we detail below. Collectively, they amount to one of the most sustained smear campaigns against honest government officials since Senator Joe McCarthy’s attacks of the 1950’s.
.. a pattern has emerged of the President and/or his enablers making wild allegations, dominating a media cycle, then pivoting away as the falsity of the claims emerge. Rather than defending the spurious attacks, after a short interval, a new and baseless charge is launched, and the vicious cycle is repeated.
.. We think the pattern is highly relevant to the credibility of each new charge
.. Myth #5: The Special Counsel’s inquiry is partisan and tainted because it was premised on Clinton campaign-funded and unreliable reports known as the “Steele Dossier.”
The Facts: The hack of Democratic Party emails and a report from Australian intelligence that Trump campaign staff may have knowledge of the hack were reportedly “driving factors” in the FBI’s decision to open an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
.. Although it is challenging to analyze the memo because neither it nor the underlying documents have been released, there are 7 multiple reasons to doubt its credibility. It appears that Representative Nunes and the other members of the House Intelligence Committee have not actually reviewed the classified source materials that were used to support FISA warrant applications. Any warrant for electronic surveillance would have been required to meet statutory requirements and withstand scrutiny from a judge. The memo is reported to be part of the effort to obstruct the Mueller investigation by discrediting and laying the groundwork to replace its supervisor DAG Rosenstein, and Rep. Nunes has consistently sought to discredit the investigation and bolster the President.
.. Critics argue that Mueller has a conflict of interest because of an alleged friendship with former FBI Director James Comey.12 This notion can be traced to a 2013 article published by the Washingtonian, 13 which describes how the two men were both mentored by Eric Holder in the 1990s and bonded over their roles “in the crucible of the highest levels of the national security apparatus after the 9/11 attacks.”14 As evidence of this friendship, the article cites general similarities including attendance at “Virginia universities with a strong public service tradition,” early success at DOJ, and a view that life at private law firms was unfulfilling that drove each to give up lucrative firm jobs “to return to the trenches of prosecuting criminals.”15 Their friendship was cemented, the article argues, when they both threatened to resign in 2004, because they believed that the Bush Administration’s post-9/11 domestic wiretapping was unconstitutional.16
As a factual matter, this article likely overstates the closeness of the professional relationship between Mueller and Comey, as they never worked in the same office at DOJ simultaneously, 17 and in threatening to resign in 2004 Mueller and Comey were not a unique duo but rather two among a number of DOJ employees who took the same position.18 Further, there is little specific evidence in this Washingtonian article or elsewhere indicating that Mueller and Comey have a close personal relationship, and the facts publicly known indicate that they don’t.
Comey’s attorney has stated outright that the men do not “really have a personal relationship,”19 that the two have never been to each other’s houses, and they have only ever shared one lunch and two dinners.20 As described by Benjamin Wittes, a journalist who does have a friendship with Comey,21 Mueller and Comey “are not, to my knowledge, personal friends,” but rather are “cordial former colleagues and two of the only people alive who have done a particular job.”22
.. A second way of explaining the conflicts of interest argument is that then-Director Mueller was purportedly protecting Hillary Clinton by not bringing Uranium One related charges against her.50 This theory relies on the premise that the Uranium One involved a corrupt quid pro quo between Hillary Clinton and Russian interests under which she advanced the deal in her capacity as Secretary of State in exchange for “a big payment”51 from Uranium One investors to the Clinton Foundation.52
.. These arguments too lack factual and legal merit. As a starting point, proponents of this theory have offered no evidence that Clinton personally participated in the CFIUS decision to approve the Uranium One deal or was even aware of it.54 That no prosecutor filed charges against Clinton during Mueller’s tenure as FBI Director does not suggest that he has a pro-Clinton bias or an anti-Republican or anti-Trump bias; it merely suggests that prosecutors did not believe that a provable crime had occurred. Tellingly, in the time since Special Counsel Mueller left the FBI no charges have been filed against Clinton. Moreover, Clinton’s State Department was only one of nine U.S. government agencies that approved the Uranium One sale.55 There is simply no credible basis to conclude that then-Director Mueller impermissibly singled out Clinton for preferential treatment.