Dommer T.S. Ellis III i Eastern District of Virginia

En dommer i Virginia sagde fredag, at specialefterforsker Bob Mueller overskrider sit mandat og har som mål at tvinge anklagede til at snakke, således at de kompromitterer præsidenten. Målet er at knalde Trump, sagde dommer T.S. Ellis III.

Specialefterforsker Bob Mueller er langt udenfor sit mandat når han fører sag mod Paul Manafort for skatteunddragelser i 2005-2007. Hans mandat er at efterforske Russia Collusion, sagde dommer T.S. Ellis III i Eastern District of Virginia fredag.

Hvad mere er, Ellis sagde, at Mueller fører sag mod Manafort for at få ham til at sige ufordelagtige ting om præsidenten, således at denne kunne stilles for en rigsret.

Det er sjældent at Bob Mueller får læst og påskrevet i så direkte vendinger. Muellers udsendte Michael Dreeben følte sig tydeligvist dårlig på bænken i Alexandria.

At a tense hearing in a federal court in Virginia on Friday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III sharply questioned whether Mueller exceeded his authority in filing tax and bank fraud charges against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

Ellis said the indictment appeared to be a way for Mueller to leverage Manafort into providing information about Trump.

“The vernacular is to sing,” he said.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” the judge said. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead to Mr. Trump” and his eventual prosecution or impeachment.

“It’s unlikely you’re going to persuade me the special counsel has unfettered power to do whatever he wants,” Ellis, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said at a hearing on Manafort’s motion to dismiss the Virginia charges.

-Melodien her er at synge, dvs. sladre, sagde dommer Ellis. Det er ikke en kompliment. Der har været mange artikler i pressen om at Muellers mandat ikke er Russia Collusion, men at få skovlen under præsidenten. Dommer Ellis sagde det med rene ord.

At a tense hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the judge said Mueller should not have “unfettered power” in his Russia probe and that the charges against Manafort did not arise from the investigation into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

Muller overtog efterforskningen af Manafort fra justitsministeriet. Manaforts advokater vil have sagen mod ham afvist af formelle grunde.

Muellers team nægter at svare på, om der er nogen grænser for deres mandat. Justitsminister Jeff Sessions sagde sidste uge at det var på tide for Mueller at konkludere. Om “nogle uger”.

Udvidet mandat

Men Muellers mand afslørede at vicejustitsminister Rod Rosenstein udvidede Muellers mandat i august 2017. Det er første gang det er kommet frem. Da dommer Ellis bad om aktindsigt fik han til svar at det var underlagt nationale sikkerhedshensyn. Han kunne kun få en redigeret version at se.

Dreeben also stressed that Rosenstein wrote another memo two months later, in August 2017, explicitly granting Mueller the power to investigate Manafort’s Ukraine dealings years before the 2016 election.

Ellis complained that the bulk of that August memo he has received was highly redacted.

He directed Mueller’s office to take two weeks to consult with U.S. intelligence agencies to see if they will sign off so that he can personally review a sealed, unredacted version of the memo.

Dreeben told him the redacted portions did not pertain to the Manafort case.
“I’ll be the judge,” Ellis said.

Dommer Ellis nægtede at finde sig i at Mueller kan nægte ham indsigt.

Alliance Rosenstein-Mueller

Oplysningen om brevet understreger at Rosenstein opererer i samråd med Mueller, på tværs af præsidenten. Justitsminister Sessions har erklæret sig inhabil og overladt Mueller-efterforskningen til Rosenstein. Det har affødt meget frustration og irritation.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump’s “prosecution or impeachment,” Ellis said…

When Dreeben answered Ellis’ question about how the investigation and its charges date back to before the Trump campaign formed, the judge shot back, “None of that information has to do with information related to Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump. ”

At one point, Ellis posed a hypothetical question, speaking as if he were the prosecutor, about why Mueller’s office referred a criminal investigation about Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen to New York authorities and kept the Manafort case in Virginia.

They weren’t interested in it because it didn’t “further our core effort to get Trump,” Ellis said, mimicking a prosecutor in the case.

Det er første gang frustrationen over Muellers magtbrynde bryder til overfladen i en retssal.

Mueller har hidtil gjort som han vil. Han efterforsker hvem han vil, han indkalder hvem han vil.

Nu begynder tålmodigheden at være opbrugt. Republikanerne agter ikke at sidde stille og se på at han forsøger at ødelægge præsidenten. Han må have noget håndfast at lægge på bordet som inkriminerer, ikke taktikker som indebærer afpresning og mørkelægning.

Mueller and the Judge
What exactly are the limits on the special counsel’s authority?

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