Mr. Mueller shows his cards—and reveals a pack of jokers
By Pat Wiedenkeller, CNN
Updated 12:29 AM ET, Wed December 12, 2018
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Mueller: Manafort lied about major issues 01:24
(CNN)On Friday the Justice Department dropped some huge shoes in the Russia investigation. First a pair of memos from special prosecutor Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York involving the criminal sentencing of Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer. Then a filing on Paul Manafort's failed cooperation with the Mueller probe (it said he lied).
The memos were terse and in spots heavily redacted, but it was clear enough to former federal prosecutor Elie Honig that the evidence of federal crimes-in-plain-sight was pointing to Trump. "We still do not know everything Mueller knows," Honig wrote, but we do know it's a lot. "The contours of a broad scheme by the administration to conspire with Russia -- to the personal benefit of Trump and the detriment of the United States -- are now coming into sharper focus."
"It is increasingly clear that Trump had deep financial and political incentives to curry favor from Russia as the 2016 election approached," Honig wrote. "Mueller's recent filings have begun to answer the 'why?' question."
Earlier in the week, Mueller issued another heavily redacted sentencing memo recommending zero prison time for admitted felon and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, primarily because of Flynn's "substantial assistance to the government"—including 19 meetings with the special prosecutors team. "The investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing," the memo said. "Translation," says Honig: "people are going to get charged based on Flynn' s information, but not just yet."
CNN's Peter Bergen unpacked what he called Flynn's precipitous "fall from grace" -- how an admired Army Special Operations officer came to be a failed White House aide who peddled conspiracy theories, led chants of "lock her up" and lied to federal investigators. Officers who served with Flynn were dismayed by his rancorous performance at the GOP convention in 2016, Bergen wrote. "The angry man on stage didn't seem like the Mike Flynn they knew."
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