Riley Brennan
Editor-In-Chief
It has been about over a year since speculation about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election began. Former FBI director, James Comey, was responsible for launching an investigation into the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia in relation to the 2016 election, in July of 2016.
However, in May of 2017, President Trump fired Comey, effectively removing him from the investigation. The official statement issued from the White House on the matter said that Trump, “acted based on the clear recommendations” of the attorney general and deputy attorney general. In an interview with Lester Holt, Trump claimed that while he had met with the attorney general and deputy attorney general, he had already decided to fire Flynn.
The decision to fire Comey was met with much backlash from Democrats who believed this was Trump’s attempt to halt the investigation.
Following Comey’s removal on May 17, Robert Mueller was appointed by the Department of Justice to oversee the investigation. Mueller took over Comey’s responsibilities regarding the case, and then proceeded to expand the probe, in order to look into Trump’s firing of Comey, and whether or not it was to be considered an obstruction of justice.
In August of this year, Mueller impaneled a grand jury for the investigation; which is helpful in gathering evidence.
It was not until October that any charges were made. Former Trump campaign officials, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates were charged with 12 counts of financial crimes in relation to work they have conducted in Ukraine over the past 10 years. The charges against them include conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
However, Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, and has been put on house arrest. Manafort and Gates were freed on a $10 million bond and $5 million bond, respectively. They will not be required to pay said bonds unless they violate the terms of their house arrests. Terms include checking in with law enforcement daily via phone, and they are only allowed out of their homes for court appearances, meetings with lawyers, medical emergencies, and religious observance. Both men have surrendered their passports as they await their trial. Manafort faces up to 80 years in prison, and Gates faces up to 70. Their trials are set for May 2018.
Manafort has requested to be released from house arrest every weekday morning and afternoon, for activities regarding bringing his children to school and then after school activities such as birthdays and other gatherings among classmates and friends. He also requested release on weekends and holidays, and for the ability to conduct his consulting business.
Since making requests regarding his house arrest, the Justice Department Special Counselor Robert Mueller team has found that Paul Manafort wrote as a ghostwriter on an op-ed piece with a Russian who has ties to the Russian Intelligence Service. The piece relates to Manafort’s political work for Ukraine, and investigators have found him to have been working on the editorial as recent as last week. This violates the judge’s ruling in Manafort’s case, which ordered him to “refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case." A status conference has been scheduled for December 11.
Trump’s foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to charges of issuing false statements to the FBI, in relation to conversations he had with Russian professor, Joseph Mifsud. Papadopoulos conversed with this professor, who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, and is the first to be charged within the investigation. Papadopoulos lied to the FBI in regards to his contacts within Russia, those which were connected to the Kremlin.
In recent a development, Sessions can now recall a meeting that included Papadopoulos.. In a testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Sessions said, "I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting."
As reported by the Washington Post, court documents disclose that it was during this meeting in March that Papadopoulos mentioned his connections with Russia. In front of the Trump Campaign’s foreign policy advisors, Papadopoulos suggested he had the ability to orchestrate a meeting between candidate Trump and Vladimir Putin. Both Trump and Sessions were present at this meeting. Upon his recent jog of memory, Sessions has stated that reading a news report which included Papadopoulos’ plea, helped him to remember some aspects of the meeting. On recalling the meeting, Sessions has now said, "After reading his account, and to the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any other foreign government, for that matter.” Sessions has denied ever lying during a testimony, calling such claims themselves, a lie.
In January of 2017 Sessions told the Senate he was not in contact with any Russians throughout the 2016 campaign. This statement contradicts information that was revealed later on, which confirmed he met with the Russian ambassador to the United States multiple times throughout 2016. In a Senate hearing this past October, Sessions admitted to meeting with the Russian ambassador, following the Republican National Convention, and a couple of times after that, but insists meetings were not related to the campaign or election.
Former security advisor, Michael Flynn has taken steps to cooperate with Mueller. Reports have disclosed that Flynn’s lawyer met with members of Mueller’s team. These developments come a week after Flynn told White House lawyers that he would not discuss the investigation, which has hinted at the possibility of him working with prosecutors or negotiating a plea deal.
Flynn has since has since pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., due to statements he made regarding conversations had with a Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, last December. President Trump spoke about Flynn in a tweet, writing, “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”.
Mueller has also zeroed in on Trump himself, specifically his ties to Deutsche Bank AG, a German global banking and financial services company.Mueller has issued a subpoena to the bank, requesting the submission of any files relating to business with President Trump. Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, has since denied such claims about a subpoena being issued. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has called the Mueller subpoena reports false; “We confirmed that the news reports [that] the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records related to the president are completely false,”.
The investigation now has the potential to face an early termination, following accusations regarding obtaining unlawful emails made by republicans. Accusations have been made by Trump’s transitions lawyers, that Mueller’s team received thousands of transition emails, without any authorization. Such lawyers also claim that some of the contained documents that they believe to be protected under attorney-client privilege. The transition emails were on a government domain, and required permission to access. However, the transition team claims that despite the “.gov” addresses, they were private.
A spokesperson for the Mueller team has denied these claims, though democrats and republicans alike now fear for the future of the investigation. Speculation regarding the possibility of Trump firing Mueller has circulated the country, leaving the future of the investigation up in the air. Reporters have asked Trump himself whether he is considering firing Mueller, to which he has responded, “No, I’m not”.
Despite Trump’s denial, his team has made numerous attempt to discredit both the investigation and Mueller. More recently, the Department of Justice shared with reporters text messages exchanged between two FBI agents, which contained criticism towards Trump; though they also contained criticism for his opponent Hillary Clinton and other democrats. One of these agents was removed prior to the publication of the messages, and the other has been moved to a different job post.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who reserves the power to fire Mueller, has also dismissed the idea of firing Mueller. When asked if he’d seen good cause to fire Mueller, Rosenstein responded, “No.” As reported in CNN, Rosenstein then went as far as to praise him: “Director Mueller has throughout his lifetime been a dedicated and respected heroic public servant and I believe he was an ideal choice for this task.” However, Rosenstein was the one who appointed Mueller to his position, and has maintained a close oversight over the special counsel. Because of Rosenstein’s proximity and influence over the investigation, Washington has started to speculate that it will be Rosenstein, not Mueller that Trump fires. This would then allow Trump to appoint a new Deputy Attorney General, which could end up benefiting him in the end.
