- Robert Mueller showed he can keep a secret and send a powerful message to Washington
- He has taken his mandate as special counsel broadly and leveraged at least one insider to cooperate
begin quote from:
The most powerful person in DC
Ex-campaign adviser: Papadopoulos was just a coffee boy
Why Robert Mueller is the most powerful man in Washington
Story highlights
(CNN)Justice
Department special counsel Robert Mueller's one-two punch on Monday
sent a forceful message to President Donald Trump, the public and
potential suspects about the case he is constructing of Trump
associates' involvement with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Mueller showed he can keep a secret and maximize the impact of what he makes public.
In
the first major filings of his investigation into the Russian effort to
influence the election, Mueller revealed how broadly he has taken his
mandate, the kinds of records he has uncovered, and how he has leveraged
at least one insider to cooperate.
His
double-barrel strike was likely more potent than releasing on two
different days the indictment related to former campaign chairman Paul
Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates, and the plea
deal of George Papadopoulos.
"There's
a 'large scale ongoing investigation of which this case is a small
part,'" Aaron Zelinsky of the special counsel's office said during Papadopoulos' sentencing hearing earlier this month, according to a transcript unsealed Monday.
Mueller's
team appears to be making its case to the public, too. In the documents
released Monday, evidence is laid out in attention-getting detail, with
tantalizing quotes ("Great work," a campaign supervisor tells
Papadopoulos).
The documents point
up the fact that the Trump campaign was aware early in 2016 of offers
of "thousands" of potentially damaging emails about Democrat Hillary
Clinton.
There is an implicit
warning to potential additional defendants about trying to hide evidence
and a "we've got more" suggestion throughout. The Papadopoulos
statement opened with the observation that it does not "constitute all
the facts known" and then referred to conversations he had with multiple
high-ranking (unnamed at this point) campaign officials.
The
timing of the rollout may also have thrown the White House. Manafort
was pictured walking into FBI offices in Washington as he and Gates were
indicted. The President barely had had time to assert on Twitter that
the indictment of Manafort and Gates was unrelated to his campaign when
the Papadopoulos news went public.
The
guilty plea details how the 30-year-old former campaign foreign policy
adviser lied to federal investigators about his interactions with
foreign officials close to the Russian government. Papadopoulos falsely
described the facts surrounding interactions with a foreign contact
regarding possible "dirt" on Clinton, Republican Trump's opponent in the
race for the White House.
Mueller's methodical process
Mueller,
a former FBI director first appointed by Republican President George W.
Bush in 2001 and continued under Democratic President Barack Obama, was
named the Russia special counsel on May 17. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions has recused himself from Russia-related matters, and Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the appointment after Trump fired
then-FBI director James Comey, who previously oversaw the Russia
investigation.
As
laid out by Rosenstein, Mueller is investigating any links or
coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign as
well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly" from the
investigation and any attempts to interfere with it, such as perjury,
obstruction of justice and the destruction of evidence.
The
indictment of Manafort and Gates shows that Mueller is going back more
than a decade to potential wrongdoing unrelated to the election but
connected to Russia. The 31-page, 12-count indictment relates to their
political consulting on behalf of Russian-backed officials in Ukraine.
It asserts conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder
money, and failure to register as an agent of a foreign principal, among
other charges.
The indictment
alleges lavish spending from the offshore accounts, including to pay for
mortgages, children's tuition and home decorating. It also documents
some of the evidence retrieved from Manafort's Virginia home when
federal agents made a pre-dawn raid.
Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Papadopoulos,
on the other hand, entered a guilty plea after federal officials caught
him lying about his interactions with a "foreign contact who discussed
'dirt' related to emails concerning" Clinton.
The
plea statement lists Papadopoulos' initial falsehoods and his efforts
to cover his tracks once the FBI questioned him. He shut down his
Facebook account the day after an interview. It had contained
information about his communications with Russian nationals. He also
stopped using his usual cell phone number and got a new one.
It
turned out Papadopoulos had multiple email exchanges in an effort to
arrange a meeting between Trump campaign operatives and Russians. "It's
history making if it happens," Papadopoulos wrote enthusiastically in
one email.
The 13-page plea
document unsealed on Monday highlights Papadopoulos' connection to the
Trump campaign, noting at one point that the campaign told The
Washington Post in March 2016 that Papadopoulos was one of five named
foreign policy advisers.
A month
later, he met with a contact identified as "the professor" for breakfast
at a London hotel. The professor had just returned from Moscow, where
he apparently met with high-level Russian officals and learned that they
had "dirt" on Clinton. Papadopoulos initially tried to claim that the
interactions with "the professor" occurred before he was on the Trump
campaign.
No leaks
In a town where everything leaks, Mueller was also able to keep Papadopoulos' cooperation and plea deal under wraps.
Papadopoulos
was arrested on July 27 at Dulles International Airport. Mueller noted
that Papadopoulos then met with the government "on numerous occasions."
He was arraigned and pleaded guilty in federal court October 5, a fact
only unsealed Monday.
The secrecy
is a testament to the control Mueller has retained over the unfolding
story -- and a warning to anyone who thinks he or she is safe.
The
extent of what Papadopoulos revealed may become evident in upcoming
weeks, and Mueller's team argued as part of a motion to seal his case
that his "arrest and the accompanying criminal charges may alert other
subjects to the direction and status of the investigation."
The
document released Monday already reveals many possible lines of
inquiry. Responding to an email related to Russian efforts to meet with
Trump himself, a campaign official says, "Let[']s discuss. We need
someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be
someone low level in the campaign so as not to send a signal."
That ambiguous statement about not sending "a signal" is revealed in a footnote; it feels more like a cliffhanger.
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