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The post Robert Mueller probe: Phones of staffers wiped clean before returned to DOJ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The staff of special counsel Robert Mueller turned in 27 government smartphones that had been “wiped” of all data, including the iPhone of Andrew Weissmann, according to new Justice Department numbers.
Of over 100 relinquished iPhone 6s and 7s in 2017-19, 12 were cleansed of any texts, emails, photos and notes due to password failures. Some were automatically wiped. Others were left in airplane mode and, with no password, were reset to factory settings which cleaned data.
According to previous Justice Department reports, investigators have the forensic skills to rebuild deleted phone data if needed.
Interest in FBI- and Justice-issued phones heightened in 2017 when texts leaked between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Both were key players in the investigation of President Trump. They moved from the FBI to Mr. Mueller’s staff, but were then fired for texting to each other their intense dislike of Mr. Trump. Mr. Strzok said he would “stop” him from being president.
The Justice Department redacted most names from Friday’s release, but not all.
Mr. Weissmann was one of Mr. Mueller’s most prominent prosecutors. He led the prosecution of Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Now an MSNBC legal analyst, Mr. Weissmann has attacked Mr. Trump and given advice on how to remove him from office.
He turned in his phone in March 2018. It was clean. The Justice Department documents say “entered password too many times and wiped his phone.”
Apple.com explains the process:
“If you enter the wrong passcode too many times, you’ll see a message that your device is disabled. If you can’t remember your passcode, you’ll need to erase your iPhone, which deletes your data and settings, including the passcode.”
James Quarles, Mr. Mueller’s No. 2 prosecutor, said his phone wiped on its own.
An email said Ms. Page was told not to delete data when she left Mr. Mueller. When turned in, her phone had been reset to factory settings and thus cleansed.
Mr. Strzok’s special counsel phone had few items and had not been wiped.
In December 2018, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report on missing texts from Ms. Page’s and Mr. Strzok’s Samsung Galaxy S7 phones before they joined the Mueller team in 2017.
The IG cyber investigations office was able to retrieve thousands of those texts.
Mr. Horowitz’s landmark December 2019 report on FBI wiretap abuse contains many text messages between Mr. Strzok and other bureau officials as he began investigating the Trump campaign in July 2016.
The IG also asked Mr. Mueller’s office to provide the iPhones used by the two. It confirmed that nothing of value was on the Strzok device before it was reassigned to another agent.
Investigators located Ms. Page’s phone. A forensic examine determined there was no pertinent data.
The IG’s ability to recreate data would lead to a conclusion that Mr. Mueller staff’s wipe phones could also be reconstituted if need be.
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]]>The post Mueller lawyer: Stone spared prison by Trump as reward for silence appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>- Andrew Weissmann, who worked as a prosecutor on Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has argued that President Donald Trump spared his former adviser Roger Stone from prison as a reward.
- “Mr. Stone was sentenced to spend 40 months in prison until he got his reward for keeping his lips sealed,” Weissmann wrote in a New York Times op-ed article on Tuesday.
- Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s 40-month prison sentence last Friday was heavily criticized. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called it an act of “unprecedented, historic corruption.”
- Stone was found guilty in 2019 of lying to a congressional panel investigating Russia, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign.
- But Trump has defended the decision, claiming that Stone did not receive a fair trial and boasting that he received “rave reviews” for the decision.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Andrew Weissmann, one of the prosecutors who served on the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has argued that President Donald Trump commuted the political consultant Roger Stone’s prison sentence as a reward for “keeping his lips sealed.”
In an op-ed article in The New York Times published Tuesday, Weissmann said Stone was found guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt, of lying to Congress about the coordination between the Trump 2016 campaign, Mr. Stone, WikiLeaks, and Russia.”
“Mr. Stone was sentenced to spend 40 months in prison until he got his reward for keeping his lips sealed,” Weissmann continued of Trump’s decision last week to commute Stone’s prison sentence.
Weissmann is an attorney who played a key role in the Mueller investigation. On Tuesday it was announced that he would be publishing an insider’s account of the investigation in September.
—TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 14, 2020
Trump’s decision last week to spare Stone prison time attracted widespread criticism from both political parties. Sen. Mitt Romney, an outspoken Republican, described it as an act of “unprecedented, historic corruption.”
The president on Monday defended his decision to commute Stone’s sentence and claimed: “I am getting rave reviews for what I did for Roger Stone.”
Stone, a veteran “dirty trickster” and GOP strategist who advised Trump, was found guilty of lying about his contact with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.
The site published thousands of emails from Democratic servers in a bid to embarrass Hillary Clinton. US intelligence later found the emails had been stolen by Russian intelligence.
In his first TV interview since the commutation, Stone told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday that Trump had effectively saved his life.
“I was literally hours away from being sent to a COVID-infested prison in violation of the current Bureau of Prisons and DOJ policies,” he said.
He also said a lung condition meant a coronavirus infection could have been fatal for him.
Stone went on to say the trial was unfair: “I had a biased judge. I had a stacked jury. I had a corrupt jury forewoman … My trial was over before it started.”
In the interview he responded to claims that the commutation was a reward for his silence.
“There was no circumstance under which I would bear false witness against the president,” he said. “I was just not willing to lie … What I said has been consistent, that I would not lie against my friend of 40 years [Trump] so they could use it for impeachment.”
On Saturday, Mueller also wrote a rare op-ed article in The Washington Post defending his investigation against claims made by Trump and Trump’s allies that it was politically motivated.
“Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so,” Mueller wrote.
Weissmann, in his op-ed article, called for Attorney General William Barr — who has said he did not back the commutation of Stone’s sentence — to call Stone before a grand jury to establish what really happened back in 2016.
“If there was nothing nefarious about his coordination efforts, why did he lie about them to Congress?” Weissmann wrote of Stone. “This question remains unanswered, as the Mueller report notes.”
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]]>The post Sen. Graham says Mueller may be invited to testify in wake of op-ed on Trump’s commutation of Stone sentence appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Sunday that former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III may be invited to testify before his panel, although Graham did not give any details on the timing of any potential invitation.
Graham’s statement came one day after Mueller defended his office’s prosecution of Roger Stone, President Trump’s longtime friend and political adviser, in a Washington Post op-ed.
Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month prison sentence on Friday, using his presidential authority to undermine the unanimous finding by a jury that Stone broke the law multiple times by lying to Congress and obstructing justice.
In his statement Sunday, Graham suggested that he had reconsidered his position on allowing Mueller to testify in light of the former special counsel’s op-ed.
“Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing — and also capable — of defending the Mueller investigation through an oped in the Washington Post,” Graham said. “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.”
Taylor Reidy, a Graham spokeswoman, said a formal invitation to Mueller is in the works but did not provide details on the timing of any potential testimony. There are only about three dozen legislative days remaining for the Senate before the November election.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Graham’s statement. A spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mueller testified before two House committees last year, answering questions about his investigation of Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election. At the time, some Republicans criticized Mueller’s performance, seizing on his halting replies to some questions and his at-times confused demeanor.
Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence has triggered a flood of criticism, with Democrats — and a handful of Republicans — in recent days arguing that the move amounted to an abuse of presidential power and an effort to undermine the justice system.
On Sunday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said that “anyone who cares about the rule of law in this country” should be “nauseated” by Trump’s actions in the Stone case.
“The president through this commutation is basically saying, ‘If you lie for me, if you cover up for me, if you have my back, then I will make sure that you get a get-out-of-jail-free card,’ ” Schiff said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.” “Other Americans, different standards. Friends of the president’s, accomplices of this president, they get off scot-free.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) also criticized Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence, calling it a “problem.”
“The president does have the right, by law, to take the action he took,” Hogan said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.” “That doesn’t mean he should have.”
For Trump to commute the sentence “a couple of months before an election . . . is certainly going to hurt politically,” Hogan added.
Trump fired back at two of the Republicans who have criticized him — Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) — in a tweet on Saturday night in which he called them “RINO’S,” an acronym that stands for “Republicans in Name Only.”
Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis rebuked Mueller for writing the op-ed, arguing Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel that “as a prosecutor, he should be completely disinterested.”
“He should have just remained quiet and allowed the commutation to proceed,” Ellis said of Mueller.
Renae Merle and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
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]]>The post Top Mueller lawyer to publish insider account of Trump-Russia investigation appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Andrew Weissmann, an attorney who played a leading role under Robert Mueller in the investigation of Russian election interference, will release a book about the special counsel’s near two-year examination of links between Donald Trump and Moscow.
Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation will be published by Random House on 29 September. The publisher promised “a meticulous account of the Mueller team’s probe and its ongoing battles with the Trump administration”.
It will be the latest in a lucrative stream of books about Trump, his presidency and the Russia investigation.
In court in New York on Monday, the president’s niece, Mary Trump, will find out if a temporary restraining order will be lifted so she can discuss her book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man, which will be published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday.
In a statement, Weissmann said: “I felt it was necessary to record this episode in our history, as seen and experienced by an insider.
“This is the story of our investigation into how our democracy was attacked by Russia and how those who condoned and ignored that assault undermined our ability to uncover the truth. My obligation as a prosecutor was to follow the facts where they led, using all available tools and undeterred by the onslaught of the president’s unique powers to undermine our work.”
Weissmann was active on Twitter over the weekend, after Trump announced the commutation of a prison sentence awaiting Roger Stone, an aide and ally, arising from Mueller’s work.
Stone, 67 and suspected of being the link between Russian intelligence, WikiLeaks and the president himself, was convicted on counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness intimidation. He had been due to report to prison on Tuesday, to serve a 40-month sentence.
Mueller himself spoke out over the weekend, via a column in the Washington Post.
“Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes,” the former FBI director wrote. “He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Weissmann agreed with the Republican senator Mitt Romney’s description of an instance of “unprecedented, historic corruption” and advocated that Stone be brought in front of a grand jury.
There, Weissmann said, Stone would have “three choices: lie and risk prosecution, refuse to testify and be held in civil and criminal contempt, or tell the truth. Let’s do what we can to get at the truth.”
He added: “Pardon power cannot be end run around rule of law. To thwart Trump abuse, new Congress should make clear that granting pardon/commutation for anyone who could testify against [the president] commits (1) obstruction of justice and (2) an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.”
Weissmann also said reports that the former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was returned to prison over his plans to publish a book were “another affront to equal justice and rule of law”. Cohen was convicted of lying to Congress and over hush money payments as a result of Mueller’s work.
Weissmann was an FBI general counsel under Mueller, gaining prominence investigating organised crime in New York and leading a taskforce on the Enron scandal. He has a reputation for being aggressive and skilled in developing cooperating witnesses.
Under Mueller, he led the case against the former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in 2018.
The Mueller report, released in April 2019, found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. But it also mapped out extensive links between Trump and Moscow, and did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice. The investigation led to more than 30 indictments.
Weissmann said: “I am deeply proud of the work we did, and of the unprecedented number of people we indicted and convicted – and in record speed.
“But the hard truth is that we made mistakes. We could have done more. Where Law Ends documents the choices we made, good and bad, for all to see and judge and learn from.”
Trump has frequently attacked Weissmann, most often over the fact he has registered as a Democrat and as part of the president’s “Obamagate” claims of a vast conspiracy against him.
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]]>The post Robert Mueller: Roger Stone “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.” appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Former special counsel Robert Mueller offered pointed criticism of President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of his longtime friend and campaign advisor Roger Stone in an op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday, declaring that despite being granted clemency, Stone “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Trump commuted Stone’s sentence on Friday — just days before he was set to begin serving a 40 month prison sentence after being convicted of lying to lawmakers who were investigating whether Russia influenced the 2016 elections. That conviction stemmed from work done by Mueller’s team in its investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Stone was convicted of seven charges in total, which also included witness tampering and obstructing a congressional committee proceeding.
Mueller’s emphatic defense of his investigation’s findings about Stone marked a sharp departure from his history of either avoiding discussing his investigation or presenting its findings in understated terms, and has prompted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to say he will allow Mueller to testify before the Senate, something Democrats on that committee have long pushed for.
On Saturday, Trump continued his defense of Stone, tweeting his friend had been “targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place.”
But in his op-ed, Mueller refuted the president’s aspersions, and systematically laid out Stone’s many violations of the law — including the way he lied to avoid revealing his links to the Russian government:
Congress also investigated and sought information from Stone. A jury later determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall Congress.
The jury ultimately convicted Stone of obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress and tampering with a witness. Because his sentence has been commuted, he will not go to prison. But his conviction stands.
Mueller also defended the women and men who conducted the investigations and prosecutions, writing that they acted “with the highest integrity” and operated based “solely on the facts and the law.”
Mueller’s decision to intervene in the public debate that followed Trump’s commutation diverged from his general tendency to avoid defending his investigation, and his apparent preference to have the report his team produced speak for itself. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp described Mueller as having “such a circumscribed view of his own responsibilities that he didn’t want to answer questions beyond simple statements or citation of the full report” when he testified before the House of Representatives last July:
Mueller testified before both the House Judiciary Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence, saying very little of substance beyond what was already contained in the text of his report. He responded to questions with monosyllables or requests for clarification. According to a count by NBC, Mueller “deflected or declined to answer questions 198 times” during the two three-hour hearings.
Mueller did not detail what informed his decision to write the op-ed, but it comes at a time when Democrats — as well as some Republicans — have expressed deep concern about the extraordinary precedent that Trump is setting by granting clemency to his friend and someone who, according to prosecutors, lied to protect the president.
Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and the New Yorker, has argued that with the commutation of Stone, Trump has entered new, dangerous territory.
“Trump had not, until now, used pardons and commutations to reward defendants who possessed incriminating information against him,” he wrote in the New Yorker. “The Stone commutation isn’t just a gift to an old friend—it is a reward to Stone for keeping his mouth shut during the Mueller investigation. It is, in other words, corruption on top of cronyism.”
Trump is receiving pushback for what may be unprecedented corruption
Trump’s move to pardon Stone was notable even amid his sustained trend of using his powers as president to reward those who are loyal to him (and punish those who he believes aren’t). Experts say that that the frequency with which Trump has granted clemency toward those he sees as allies — like when he pardoned or commuted the sentences of 11 people who had an inside connection to him or were promoted on Fox News in February — appears to be historically unique.
“Modern presidents have sullied clemency through disuse (both Bushes) and occasional self-serving grants (Clinton),” Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas’ School of Law, told NPR. “However, no president [until Trump] has ever used clemency primarily to reward friends and political allies.”
On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Trump’s decision to scrap Stone’s sentence in strong terms.
“It’s staggering corruption, but I think it’s important for people also to know it’s a threat to our national security,” Pelosi said on CNN’s State of the Union. “The whole impeachment process was about our national security. Why we are at the Supreme Court on these cases was to find out about the Russian connection, and we will continue to pursue that. This case was about the Russian connection.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) told NBC News on Saturday that Trump’s commutation sends the clear signal that, “If you lie for the president, if you cover up for the president, if you withhold incriminating evidence for the president, you get a pass from Donald Trump.”
Schiff argued that the situation speaks to the urgency of passing a bill he introduced in 2019 — the Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act, which requires the president to present evidence to Congress when granting clemency to someone in an investigation in which the president or a family member is a witness, subject, or target.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has demonstrated a willingness to break from his party in his criticism of the president, deemed Trump’s move ”unprecedented, historic corruption.”
He was joined in this criticism by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who said in a statement, “In my view, commuting Roger Stone’s sentence is a mistake,” adding, “Earlier this week Attorney General Bill Barr stated he thought Mr. Stone’s prosecution was ‘righteous’ and ‘appropriate’ and the sentence he received was ‘fair.’ Any objections to Mr. Stone’s conviction and trial should be resolved through the appeals process.”
The critiques from the Republican senators caused Trump to lash out at them on Twitter Saturday, calling them Republicans in name only.
Do RINO’S Pat Toomey & Mitt Romney have any problem with the fact that we caught Obama, Biden, & Company illegally spying on my campaign? Do they care if Comey, McCabe, Page & her lover, Peter S, the whole group, ran rampant, wild & unchecked – lying & leaking all the way? NO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2020
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham followed that tweet with one of his own, indicating Mueller would be asked to testify before his committee.
“Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing — and also capable — of defending the Mueller investigation through an oped in the Washington Post,” Graham wrote on Twitter. “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.”
It’s unclear, however, whether Mueller will ultimately testify, or if the op-ed will be his final word on the issue.
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]]>The post Graham says he will call Mueller to testify before Senate committee appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced Sunday that he will grant a request to call former Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify about the Russia investigation.
Graham made the announcement in a statement a day after Mueller published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he defended the prosecution and conviction of Roger Stone after President Trump commuted Stone’s sentence. Stone’s case spun out of Mueller’s probe.
ROBERT MUELLER DEFENDS STONE CONVICTION, RUSSIA INVESTIGATION AFTER SHARP CRITICISM FROM WHITE HOUSE
“Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing — and also capable — of defending the Mueller investigation through an op-ed in the Washington Post,” Graham said in a statement. “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.”
Mueller’s op-ed defended both the decision to prosecute Stone, as well as the overarching Russia investigation that Republicans and the president have repeatedly denounced. Mueller said he felt “compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper.”
Trump tweeted Saturday that Stone “was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place.”
TRUMP COMMUTES ROGER STONE’S SENTENCE, DAYS BEFORE PRISON TERM SET TO BEGIN
“The Russia investigation was of paramount importance,” he added. He went on to indirectly address Republicans’ accusations that the investigation was led by crooked actors within the Justice Department (DOJ). “The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false,” he said.
Saturday’s op-ed represents perhaps the boldest statement from Mueller, who was criticized for offering what was considered a tepid testimony to House investigators last year. Former FBI Director James Comey similarly defended the investigation last May and ridiculed accusations that the DOJ engaged in a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The White House responded to Mueller’s op-ed Sunday, referring to Mueller’s own report, which noted a lack of evidence that the Trump campaign illegally colluded with Russia.
“Robert Mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the Obama-Biden Administration accountable for their negligence toward Russian interference or for spying on the Trump Campaign based on a Democrat-funded dossier full of lies, and instead wasted taxpayer dollars trying to undo an election,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. “Mr. Mueller should keep his promise to the American people and let the report, which fully exonerated the President, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more spin.”
Fox News’ Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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]]>The post Robert Mueller breaks his silence and condemns Trump for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence appeared first on Virus Reports.
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The post Robert Mueller breaks his silence and condemns Trump for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Robert Mueller breaks his silence and condemns Trump for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The former special counsel Robert Mueller made a rare move on Saturday to publicly defend his two-year investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election – and to castigate US president Donald Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence.
Mueller wrote an opinion article for the Washington Post published under the headline “Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so”.
“The work of the special counsel’s office – its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions – should speak for itself,” he wrote.
“But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office …
“Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Trump commuted the sentence of Stone on Friday night, sparking outrage from Democrats and some senior Republicans.
Stone was a former campaign adviser to the president, convicted in November 2019 of seven crimes including obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering.
The 2017-19 Mueller investigation uncovered evidence of communications between Stone and WikiLeaks related to the release of hacked Democratic party emails during the 2016 election, discovered in a separate inquiry into Russian intelligence officers charged with hacking the emails and staging their release.
The partially released Mueller report in April 2019 described Russian efforts to tamper with the election and the Trump campaign’s receptivity to certain “Russian offers of assistance to the campaign”.
It outlined actions by Trump that may have amounted to obstruction of justice and concluded: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Mueller also concluded he did not have the power to charge Trump even if he thought it was warranted.
Mueller wrote: “The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate.
“We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel – Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government …
“The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. [And] that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
Trump has repeatedly attempted to discredit Mueller and his investigations.
Mueller has kept his counsel since he testified in Congress in July last year. It was a muted affair, and many perceived Trump was emboldened in his efforts to seek assistance in his current election campaign from the Ukraine.
This led to the historic impeachment of the president, and Trump’s ultimate acquittal by the Senate earlier this year.
On Saturday Mueller wrote: “Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood.”
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]]>The post Robert Mueller defends Stone conviction, Russia investigation after sharp criticism from White House appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Saturday vigorously defended his team’s decision to prosecute Roger Stone, stopping short of directly attacking President Trump, who commuted Stone’s sentence the day prior.
“Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so,” Mueller said in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
His op-ed defends both the decision to prosecute Stone, as well as the overarching investigation that Republicans and the president have repeatedly denounced. Mueller said he felt “compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper.”
“The Russia investigation was of paramount importance,” he added. He went on to indirectly address Republicans’ accusations that the investigation was led by crooked actors within the Justice Department (DOJ). “The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false,” he said.
TRUMP COMMUTES ROGER STONE’S SENTENCE, DAYS BEFORE PRISON TERM SET TO BEGIN
Saturday’s op-ed represents perhaps the boldest statement from Mueller, who was criticized for offering what was considered a tepid testimony to House investigators last year. Former FBI Director James Comey similarly defended the investigation last May and ridiculed accusations that the DOJ engaged in a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped into Mueller’s team, describing the Russia investigation as a witch hunt and Stone the victim of a “hoax.”
“As it became clear that these witch hunts would never bear fruit, the Special Counsel’s Office resorted to process-based charges leveled at high-profile people in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface,” McEnany said.
“These charges were the product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice. This is why the out-of-control Mueller prosecutors, desperate for splashy headlines to compensate for a failed investigation, set their sights on Mr. Stone.”
BIDEN CAMPAIGN: TRUMP ABUSED AUTHORITY BY COMMUTING ROGER STONE’S SENTENCE
She added that “Mr. Stone was charged by the same prosecutors from the Mueller Investigation tasked with finding evidence of collusion with Russia. Because no such evidence exists, however, they could not charge him for any collusion-related crime. Instead, they charged him for his conduct during their investigation. The simple fact is that if the Special Counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr. Stone would not be facing time in prison.”
Stone was ultimately convicted in November 2019 on seven counts of witness tampering, obstruction and making false statements to Congress. Trump’s commutation came just days before the 67-year-old political operative was set to serve 40 months in prison.
Mueller acknowledges in the op-ed what he said in last year’s report — that his team was unable to establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
He added: “The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
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Mueller specifically identified Stone as one of the “numerous links” between the campaign and Russia. He added that Stone “communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers.”
“Robert Mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the Obama-Biden Administration accountable for their negligence toward Russian interference or for spying on the Trump Campaign based on a Democrat-funded dossier full of lies, and instead wasted taxpayer dollars trying to undo an election. Mr. Mueller should keep his promise to the American people and let the report, which fully exonerated the President, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more spin,” Judd Deere, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary, told Fox News on Saturday night.
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