and Jared Kushner both know they are in serious trouble with or without this memo. Does anything in the Rosenstein memo tip off any potential targets or suspects as to what’s coming? Probably not. But its release cannot please Mueller or his investigators to have to publicly disclose dribs and drabs like this in their pending litigation while they have so many open investigations underway. The memo is not a “win” for Mueller. Beyond stiff-arming Manafort’s pretrial motion, the release of the memo makes sense in the court of public opinion, too, by illustrating the ways in which Mueller is following proper protocol. And we may never know if there are instances in which Rosenstein has denied Mueller the authority to investigate – say, if Mueller asked to probe Trump’s alleged Russia ties through his tax returns and the deputy attorney general said “no.” My guess is that Mueller and Rosenstein would work together in those circumstances to refine the scope of any request to make it palatable to both parties. In those instances where Mueller sought and received DOJ authority from Rosenstein, the two feds are tethered together politically even more than they were when Rosenstein first appointed Mueller as special counsel. My guess is that there are many of these authorizations stashed away, ready to be hauled out as needed. There is no way to tell how many of these requests Rosenstein has granted, and how many, if any, he’s denied. If the special counsel were as meticulous in all instances as he appears to have been here – and why wouldn’t we think that about Robert Mueller? – it is likely that he’s frequently tracked back to Rosenstein to make sure each branch of his probe was duly authorized. As Marcy Wheeler persuasively argues, the Rosenstein memo obviously does not represent the sum of all DOJ authorizations to Mueller. ![]() (Say, if and when he charges other Trump officials with similar crimes.)Ī needle, not the haystack. Now that this memo is public, the big question is whether Mueller has chosen to charge Manafort with any Russia/election-related crimes, or whether he’s waiting to do so later. And Mueller already has availed himself of federal conspiracy law in the cases he’s brought against Manafort, former Trump aide Rick Gates, and all those Russians. Always remember the vital difference, as a matter of law, between “collusion” and “conspiracy.” There is no federal crime of collusion. The Rosenstein memo does not tell us anything “new” about whether President Trump or his associates “colluded” with the Russians in advance of the 2016 election. Here are several things to keep in mind while you read coverage of it over the next few weeks.Ĭollusion is not a foregone conclusion. The memo, dated August 2, 2017, offers a rare glimpse into the investigation, and it undermines the Republican narrative that Mueller has “gone rogue.” Still, this memo is mostly a reminder of how little we know about what the special counsel knows. The special counsel felt he had to disclose the contents of the (heavily redacted) memo to fend off Manafort’s pretrial motion to dismiss 18 counts brought against him. A newly revealed memo from Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein raises several questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but leaves us with few concrete answers. In its simplest form, the memo tells us that the special counsel asked Rosenstein for the authority to look into the possibility of collusion by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and that Mueller was granted that authority last August.
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