First charges filed in Trump-Russia investigation

krish

Okay, looks like the ground is shifting a tad in the Trump/Russia thing.

Bob Mueller, registered Republican and former FBI Director (Comey's immediate predecessor), leading the Special Counsel investigation on potential collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian govt as part of the Russian interference in the 2016 US elections and 'related matters', appears to have filed charges following approval from the investigation's impaneled Washington DC federal grand jury.

                                                                        A federal grand jury in Washington on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.

The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.                                Click to expand...       

Widely believed to be former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (rather than Mike Flynn who reportedly got an immunity deal not long after resigning), though some are considering  the possibility of Don Jr or son-in-law Kushner. Could just be a leverage attempt, to have whoever it is flip on a bigger fish.
'First charges filed' in US Russia probeExclusive: First charges filed in Mueller investigation - CNNPoliticsRobert Mueller Russia inquiry: first charges have been filed – reportsThe first charges 'have been filed' in the probe into Russian meddling in the US election

krish

Ex-Trump aide 'faces charges over Russia'apparently he has now handed himself in, was 'perp walked' into his local FBI field office

Pacifico

This is going to upset some people. Nothing at all to do with Trump or the Russians stealing the elections - just common or garden tax evasion and money laundering from a scheme 4 years before Trump becomes President.

And so many had placed so much on this being a smoking gun..  

https://www.justice.gov/file/1007271/download

raduv1

Believe the main reason for the early indictments is to get them to squeal like  lil piggies . Mueller has used this tactic in the past  .

rancidpunk

Indeed. He now has some nice leverage with these charges. If there is any guilt from anyone, they may be a little uncomfortable right now.

tapzilla2k

You misunderstand the way US Prosecutors work. These charges are very specific and if the bail is set high enough it either keeps them in federal prison where either will squeal as the pressure mounts or they have to prove where the money to pay for the bail comes from i.e. not from illegal sources. This is about putting on pressure to make Trump associates flip. Flynn might have already done so.   

Only people who watch too many movies expect a smoking gun. In cases like this it's a lot of little things that lead upto a bigger picture.

   


Papadopoulos was arrested months ago, plead guilty and seems to have flipped. If you want a smoking gun that's it. Mueller is it appears at this point to be ahead of the game.

Pacifico

At the same time as Russia were being paid to supply the Clinton campaign with dirt on Trump - so I'm not sure what mileage you are expecting to get out of that.

tapzilla2k

I don't expect to get any mileage out of anything. That's for Mueller and the FBI to figure out. You also seem not to have factored in that Putin/Russia will have played both sides to tie the US in knots to paralyse it's system of Government. Which would give Putin a window of opportunity to carry out whatever plans he's had in the works for a while now. What you are doing is looking at this from an ideological view point aka Republicans vs Democrats, Trump vs Clinton. You have to look at it from Putin's point of view. Russia is not strong enough to take on the US military wise, but Russia can through the internet adapt classic propaganda weapons for the social media age. Cyberwarfare in other words has arrived. If Trump colluded with Russia or not, doesn't really matter. It's the chaos that's been created that Putin will take advantage of.

Pacifico

But that is nothing new - for decades both the US and Russia have tried to push their agenda. The US have been quite open about their attempts to interfere in the Russian electoral process so the Russians doing the same to the US is not news.

Its the hypocrisy which is new - when the Democrats dig dirt on their opponents its just a part of the election process but if the Republicans do it it is undermining the whole election..  

raduv1