For those who may have forgotten, in February, 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought a dramatic indictment against Russian actors allegedly responsible for interference in the 2016 presidential election. The indictment was made at a national press conference. The Department of Justice posted the indictment online here. The indictment charged three Russian companies and 13 Russian individuals with election related crimes.
There was speculation at the time that Mueller’s prosecutors obtained the indictment to relieve some pressure on the Special Counsel’s staff of the need to produce something. This case appeared to be one that would never see the inside of a courtroom since the defendants were all located in Russia and were not likely to show up in court.
Nevertheless, one defendant, Concord Management, hired representation. Through their representation, Concord Management requested discovery of the evidence collected as well as their right to a speedy trial.
The prosecution reacted by requesting multiple delays to moving forward including stonewalling on providing discovery evidence. Providing discovery evidence is the defendant’s right. These delaying actions included attempting to seal the evidence against the defendant.
June, 2018
BLOOMBERG – […] Mueller asked a federal judge in Washington for an order that would protect the handover of voluminous evidence to lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting LLC, one of three companies and 13 Russian nationals charged in a February indictment. They are accused of producing propaganda, posing as U.S. activists and posting political content on social media as so-called trolls to encourage strife in the U.S.
The threat of public or unauthorized disclosure of evidence would help foreign intelligence services, particularly in Russia, in “future operations against the United States,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a filing Tuesday.
“The substance of the government’s evidence identifies uncharged individuals and entities that the government believes are continuing to engage in interference operations like those charged in the present indictment,” prosecutors wrote.
Improper disclosure would tip foreign intelligence services about how the U.S. operates, which would “allow foreign actors to learn of those techniques and adjust their conduct, thus undermining ongoing and future national security operations,” according to the filing.
So, the prosecution supposedly presented evidence to get an indictment and then refused to hand over that evidence to the accused. This was simply a Star Chamber proceeding to advance a political objective. This is what the communists used to do in the old Soviet Union.
It was advanced simply to provide political cover for Robert Mueller and his staff. It was done to allow the Robert Mueller investigation to continue operating when there was never a valid justification for doing so.
It also became the source for hyped-up MSM reporting that Russian collusion was being revealed at last. And many of the talking bobbleheads on TV were able to fill time with this as well.
A few weeks ago the DOJ quietly dropped the prosecution “in the best interests of justice.” More likely it was in the best interests of not being totally embarrassed in court for the travesty that they tried to pull off. There never was anything there to begin with. The whole Special Counsel investigation was to find something, anything they could use to oust PDJT from office.
The court filing is available here.
https://www.scribd.com/document/451950605/US-v-Concord
These lawyers wanted a win without showing any of their cards. Their filing admits that they thought they could somehow finish this case without doing that. That could only happen if the defendant did not show up, giving them a win by default.
At this point two legs of the Russian stool have been broken. The first was the collusion leg. This was the election interference leg. The only one remaining is the Russian DNC/Hillary hack.
I wonder how long we will have to wait for that.
What the American public should remember from this is that the DOJ has not successfully prosecuted a single case to prove any act of “Russian interference.” It was all a sham.
Oh, and as long as they are in the business of dropping cases “in the best interests of justice,” how about dropping the case against General Michael Flynn?