The authority
In Mueller news – he does have the authority to investigate the things he’s investigating.
Paul Manafort’s legal strategy for evading the charges filed against him by special counsel Robert Mueller was fairly straightforward. His attorneys argued, among other things, that many of the charges Manafort faces — which include fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy — are largely outside the scope of Mueller’s authority. After all, Mueller was appointed to investigate collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 race. What does Manafort’s allegedly having laundered money by buying real estate in Brooklyn have to do with any of that?
Trump fans have been saying that, noisily all along. Problem: it’s not true.
Late Monday night, Mueller’s team answered, in the form of a 53-page response to Manafort’s motion to dismiss the charges. Not only did Mueller explain why he had the authority to prosecute Manafort for alleged financial crimes, but, in a footnote, he explained why he also has the authority to investigate any attempts to obstruct his probe — including, presumably, by the president of the United States.
Short version: Rosenstein said so back in May when Mueller was appointed.
When he was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May (after Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recusal from any investigations involving the 2016 presidential campaign), Rosenstein issued a public outline of the scope of Mueller’s authority. We’ve walked through this before; it includes three main things:
- “Any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”
- “Any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
- “Any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).”
That section of the Code of Federal Regulations — 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a) — allows Mueller to investigate “federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel’s investigation,” including lying to authorities.
Matters that may arise directly from the investigation. Manafort’s matter done ariz.
But the response memo also reveals that Rosenstein issued a confidential memo in August detailing areas that Mueller had the authority to investigate. Among those were specific allegations involving “crimes arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government before and during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych.” Those payments are at the heart of the indictments filed against Manafort. The allegation is that he laundered the money he received and didn’t properly report its receipt or his advocacy for Ukraine.
And there’s more. Mueller’s got permission piled on permission. Trump fans can’t scream it out of existence.
I’m sure they’ll try. If that fails they’ll just clap hands over their ears and scream “we can’t hear you”.
Once again, on their own petard are they hoist. Ken Starr established the super-broad powers of the special prosecutor’s office and pushed it to absurd limits. The GOP trying to say, “Well, maybe that’s a bit overboard” now are just getting some long-awaited karmic justice.
Freemage @2,
Well, there’s an interesting history there. Mueller has been appointed under a different body of law than Ken Starr. The Independent Counsel Act that authorized Starr was a statute that was allowed to expire in 1999. There was broad bipartisan agreement at the time that the statute gave too much unsupervised power to the ICs, including but not limited to Ken Starr.
Mueller has been appointed under regulations promulgated by the DOJ; he is an “outside special counsel,” and is more closely supervised by the DOJ than an IC would have been. That has its own potential drawbacks, of course: Mueller is easier to fire.
There’s also an interesting nuance in that ICs were required to issue a public report (though it didn’t have be as, uh, detailed as the Starr Report was), whereas Mueller will submit a report privately to Rosenstein. There are ways it could be made public (if Rosenstein rejects any of Mueller’s recommendations, I believe he has to forward the report to the Congressional leaders including the ranking members, i.e. Democrats, of the relevant committees).
Anyway, your broader point may still be valid, that there is a little karmic justice going on here, but it is also true that both parties decided to change things after the Starr experience (and other ICs).