Judge raises doubts about scope of Mueller's authority

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort get some traction, but it may not help their client.

By JOSH GERSTEIN 04/19/2018 01:56 PM EDT Updated 04/19/2018 02:39 PM EDT

A federal judge raised doubts Thursday about the scope of the order used to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to probe alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

During a two-and-a-half hour hearing in one of Mueller’s criminal cases against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson questioned whether Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s directive appointing Mueller granted him more authority than Justice Department regulations appear to permit.

Manafort’s lead defense attorney, Kevin Downing, noted that the May 17 order appointing Mueller grants him authority to pursue the Trump-Russia probe as well as other issues that “may arise” from that investigation. Downing said that was at odds with Justice’s rules, which say a special counsel must be told of the “specific factual matter” in his or her mandate.

“That’s a fair point,” Jackson said, adding later: “I don’t think that, as good as he is, that the deputy attorney general can see into the future.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/19/robert-mueller-appointment-authority-manafort-case-537491

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. She is an Obama appointee so we will have to live with the results

[elleng]

2. As we would if she were NOT an Obama appointee.

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. We would have no choice but if a sycophant we would know bullshit

[elleng]

5. Fond of calling Federal District Court judges sycophants?

I am not.

I know bullshit when I see it, from wherever.

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. Likely ANY rump appointee will be a sycophant

might be one or two who arent but that is all

ANY rump appointment must be assumed to be one until proven otherwise.

In fact since PUTIN decided the election NO rump appointment is valid

[onenote]

11. Sorry, but as a Constitutional matter, every Trump appointee confirmed by the Senate

is "valid."

[Yavin4]

3. If you can go from Whitewater to Monica

then Mueller is in good shape.

[fallout87]

8. Only problem

is that DOJ rules were changed after the Starr report to limit the scope of a special counsel.

[still_one]

7. The only way trump will be stopped is at the voting booth. It is highly unlikely that the special

counsel investigation will result in that.

The country elected a racist, sexist, bigot, and after Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, there should not be any doubt that trump is a racist, though it should have been clear to anyone who saw his campaign in 2016

America is a disgrace what they did in 2016, and I am not that confident about 2018 yet alone 2020

[dhill926]

9. sadly agree....

[rockfordfile]

10. That's only because Mueller seems to be scared of what needs to be done about trump

If Democrats take back the House, Americans are going to expect impeachment. If that doesn't happen then people will say, "Well if Trump did something wrong then why didn't Democrats impeach him"?

[still_one]

12. unless we take back the Senate with a 2/3 majority, he won't be convicted, and impeachment will be a

exercise to point out his horrendous misdeeds of not only trump and his administration, but the republicans that hopefully would propel us to victory in 2020

[GulfCoast66]

13. If we take the house, impeach him with no conviction

We will have cinched his re-election.

And since there is not chance of conviction then we need to stop with all the impeachment talk.