DOJ appoints Special Counsel to take over Russia Probe

[Peter1469]

But the gop used that last resort during a lame duck session to punish Clinton for consensual oral sex even though you knew you didn't have the votes in the Senate.

If I'm not mistaken, that was before you left the party for spending like drunken sailors.

So I, for one, laugh at your hypocrisy.

I was a grand Neocon then. I actually gave Bill a virtual fist bump for using Monica as a tool.

Bill's problem was perjury.

But I still don't begrudge him making Monica his tool.

[waltky]

A good man for a hard job...

A 'Magnificent $#@!' Is Investigating Russian Meddling in the US
21 May 2017 | Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was once a "Magnificent $#@!" in the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.

The only time I ever met Robert Swan Mueller III did not go over too well with his security detail. This was in 2001 as Mueller faced his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to become FBI Director. There was milling about before the hearing started. Mueller was at the back of the room huddled with aides and the passing senator or two who stopped to greet him. I was a reporter covering the hearing. I approached and for whatever reason blurted out "Hey, you Magnificent $#@!," or maybe just "Hey $#@!," which was sometimes how members of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, greeted each other. Members of 2/4 have officially been dubbed "Magnificent $#@!s" since 1964, and origins of the term possibly go back to World War II.

The intense, and large, denizens of the security detail with Mueller began to close on this approaching fool with a pencil and a notebook. Mueller, as I recall, also looked surprised and then laughed. We shook hands. He asked what company I was with. I said "Fox," but told him that I was gone before he arrived in Vietnam in the summer of 1968. He said he was with "Hotel," and that was it. I may have asked Mueller a question at some point in his 12 years as FBI Director -- I don't remember -- but that was our only contact. Some members of my platoon in Fox 2/4 kept in touch after I left -- I had been wounded for the second time in June 1968 -- and they occasionally mentioned the curious new lieutenant in Hotel Co. They said he was Ivy League, which they thought strange -- nobody from an Ivy League school went to Vietnam.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller has been appointed special counsel to investigate ties between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government. He is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War

What was even stranger -- he didn't curse, at least in front of them -- and that was decidedly uncommon for a Marine. They also said that he was "solid," and knew how to listen. And they also liked that he was a "Mustang" -- he had enlisted out of Princeton and gone through Parris Island boot camp just like them, and then through Officer Candidate School. Mueller would earn the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry in his time in Vietnam. The citation for his Bronze Star said that during an attack on his rifle platoon, "2nd Lt. Mueller fearlessly moved from one position to another, directing the accurate counterfire of his men and shouting words of encouragement to them." During the firefight on Dec. 11, 1968, Mueller "personally led a fire team across the fire-swept terrain to recover a mortally wounded Marine who had fallen in a position forward of the friendly lines," the citation said.

Earlier this week, Mueller was named by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to serve as Special Counsel for the Justice Department. s Special Counsel, Mueller was directed to investigate "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." Mueller has rarely spoken of his time in the Marines or how he came to join but at Princeton, he was on the lacrosse team with David Spencer Hackett. Hackett joined the Marines and served as a lieutenant in Vietnam, where he was killed by small arms fire in 1967. In a 2013 commencement speech at the College of William and Mary, first reported by Jeff Schogol of Marine Times, Mueller recalled the death of his friend and how that led him to the Marines.

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Special Counsel Mueller puts an expert in the Mafia and fraud at the heart of his investigation

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/6...-investigation

The biggest reason James Comey’s is likely to disappoint when he appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee is not because he doesn’t have a good story to tell, but because he’s concerned about getting in the way of the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

It’s almost certain that Mueller and Comey have met to discuss the limits of what the former FBI director can say on Thursday.


Comey’s silences may help to define the edges of Mueller’s investigation, but there is other information coming out that’s giving an even better glimpse into the special counsel’s thinking.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is assembling a prosecution team with decades of experience going after everything from Watergate to the Mafia to Enron as he digs in for a lengthy probe into possible collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The diversity of Mueller’s hires reinforces early signs that the investigation is going to be broader than some expected.

So far, indications are that Mueller has his eyes on Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort’s pro-Kremlin activities, former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s work as an unregistered foreign agent, as well as poking around Trump’s actions when it comes to Comey’s dismissal.

There have also been indications that Mueller will look into business interests of Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, a prospect that may be the most daunting to the White House.

Mueller’s biggest hire to date was [Andrew] Weissmann, who is taking a leave from his current post leading the Justice Department’s criminal fraud section. The two men have a long history together at the FBI, where Weissmann served as both the bureau’s general counsel from 2011 to 2013 and as Mueller’s special counsel in 2005.

Weissmann was instrumental in going after Enron CEO Ken Lay and also in breaking up New York crime families. His position at the heart of Mueller’s team suggests what kind of case this is going to be.

Former Obama DOJ spokeswoman Emily Pierce called Weissmann “an inspired choice” to help Mueller lead the Russia probe.
“As a fraud and foreign bribery expert, he knows how to follow the money. Who knows what they will find, but if there is something to be found, he will find it,” she said.

Like most special counsels, Mueller can be expected to conduct his investigation in relative silence.

There will be no public hearings and likely few, if any, updates on his progress.
Instead, at some point weeks or months down the line, either the indictments will start to flow … or they won’t.

If Mueller reaches a conclusion that charges aren’t warranted, the evidence developed in the investigation may never be brought forward.
But in the meantime, looking at how Mueller staffs his remaining positions could be the best clue to where his attention has turned.

Will he bring in experts on money laundering? Real estate fraud? Investigators with a military background ?

How those seats get filled could leave some people at the White House breathing a sigh of relief, and others shaking in their Guccis.




Andrew Weissmann brought down Gotti and Vincent *The Chin* Gigante

[Archer0915]

If nothing comes of this? What then? Will you stop?

[Tahuyaman]

But I still don't begrudge him making Monica his tool.

. A president of the United States playing these silly high school games with a girl young enough to be his daughter was kind of "Chester like" wouldn't you say?

[Captain Obvious]

If nothing comes of this? What then? Will you stop?

Yeah, right

Tomorrow's tabloid highlights are being teed up now.