Mueller report: Criminal probe into Russia inquiry begins

[zenkai]

source

The US justice department has launched a criminal investigation into the origins of the Mueller inquiry, US media report.

An administrative review into the special counsel's investigation of 2016 election interference began in May.

But the switch to a criminal probe means investigators can now issue subpoenas for testimony and documents.

President Trump has long alleged Robert Mueller's probe of reports of collusion with Russia was a "witch hunt".

The investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election did not establish any criminal conspiracy between Moscow and Donald Trump's campaign. But it did not clear the president of obstructing justice.

Reports on the criminal probe first appeared in the New York Times. It is unclear what potential crime is under investigation, the newspaper said.
Why is the Mueller report being investigated?

The administrative review of the Mueller investigation began in May. It is being overseen by the US Attorney-General William Barr and is run by US federal prosecutor John Durham.

Mr Durham was tasked with determining whether the collection of intelligence on the Trump campaign in 2016 was lawful. He is widely respected and known for investigating links between FBI agents and organised crime, and investigating the destruction of CIA interrogation videos.
Media captionThe Mueller report - in 60 seconds

Last April, Mr Barr told members of Congress that he believed "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign in 2016, adding: "The question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I'm not suggesting that it wasn't adequately predicated. But I need to explore that."

Critics accused Mr Barr of launching an administrative review more in the interests of the president than the interests of justice.

In a joint statement, the chairs of the House judiciary and intelligence committees said reports of a criminal investigation "raise profound new concerns that the Department of Justice under AG Barr has lost its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump's political revenge".

The two Democrats, Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff, said the move could bring "new and irreparable damage" to the rule of law.


President Trump said at the time he did not order Mr Barr to launch the administrative review, but added that he was "so proud of our attorney general" and it was "a great thing that he did".

Mr Trump has previously accused the FBI investigators who first launched the probe into his election campaign of treason.
What don't we know?

So far, the justice department has not made clear what potential crime is under investigation.

It is also unclear why this investigation has started now, or what prompted it.


And given the department itself appointed Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, this criminal probe means the department may be in essence investigating itself.
What's the Mueller report?

The 448-page Mueller report did not conclude that there was a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

However, it did detail 10 instances where Mr Trump possibly attempted to impede the investigation.

The report concluded that Russia had interfered in the election "in sweeping and systematic fashion".

That interference took the form of an extensive social media campaign and the hacking of Democratic Party servers by Russian military intelligence, the report said.

Well this is interesting timing, we don't know the details yet but this could be a distraction tactic.

[Orbitus]

Well this is interesting timing, we don't know the details yet but this could be a distraction tactic.

Why the fuck did you make a thread that I already made? A thread that I made probably 12+ hours ago?

[Mormolyce]

Well this is interesting timing, we don't know the details yet but this could be a distraction tactic.

LOL you think?

The origins of the probe have been publicly known for 2+ years.

[Mihalik]

The source of the criminal probe into the Russia inquiry?

Ask all the assholes who already been convicted for their involvement with Russia.

[Theodarzna]

Wait until you see how loud and hard the Establishment types flip their lids once this really gets underway. As a matter of fact its already starting.

This is the root cause of the Establishments insanity; the reason that they came down on Trump so hard to both prevent him from taking office, and to prevent him from keeping it. They have been trying to stop this sort of prying eyes from the first day that he walked into the White House, but the only thing they have done since then is follow the laser pointer wherever Trump pointed it since the media is playing peek-a-boo with no concept of object permanence.

They did not pay attention to Sessions while he was building up the cases behind the scenes, they didn't pay attention to Whitaker while he was pushing all of the pieces together, they did not pay attention to Barr when he told everyone that he was going to bring the hammer down on all of this, and they still have not been paying attention to how Trump has been completely reworking the judiciary to get ready for this. Either Trump is less retarded than he looks, or someone is Rasputin'ing this whole shitshow and I want to know this dark puppet master.

Hell, they are only just now freaking out about Durham, even though he started this investigation more than a year ago. The fact that they are switching this over right now means most likely that the upcoming OIG report is going to be packaged with criminal referrals that are going to directly segue into criminal indictments. Every single person involved in this just dove into a bunker full of lawyers because they know for a fact that very soon, someone's going to come knocking at their door to ask them how the Intelligence Community transitioned from "Trump is a Russian-controlled asset!" into, "Oops, nevermind!"

[Xeones]

Well this is interesting timing, we don't know the details yet but this could be a distraction tactic.

Given that they haven't identified what the crime is, yea it's a distraction tactic so Trump can point to it as some sort of justification.

[Xyonai]

Wait until you see how loud and hard the Establishment types flip their lids once this really gets underway. As a matter of fact its already starting.

This is the root cause of the Establishments insanity; the reason that they came down on Trump so hard to both prevent him from taking office, and to prevent him from keeping it. They have been trying to stop this sort of prying eyes from the first day that he walked into the White House, but the only thing they have done since then is follow the laser pointer wherever Trump pointed it since the media is playing peek-a-boo with no concept of object permanence.

They did not pay attention to Sessions while he was building up the cases behind the scenes, they didn't pay attention to Whitaker while he was pushing all of the pieces together, they did not pay attention to Barr when he told everyone that he was going to bring the hammer down on all of this, and they still have not been paying attention to how Trump has been completely reworking the judiciary to get ready for this. Either Trump is less retarded than he looks, or someone is Rasputin'ing this whole shitshow and I want to know this dark puppet master.

Hell, they are only just now freaking out about Durham, even though he started this investigation more than a year ago. The fact that they are switching this over right now means most likely that the upcoming OIG report is going to be packaged with criminal referrals that are going to directly segue into criminal indictments. Every single person involved in this just dove into a bunker full of lawyers because they know for a fact that very soon, someone's going to come knocking at their door to ask them how the Intelligence Community transitioned from "Trump is a Russian-controlled asset!" into, "Oops, nevermind!"

Or, and bare with me because this might be shocking: Trump is a petty asshole, Barr's a stooge, and this is just coming out now to try and overshadow the impeachment inquiry. I'm not going to say the entirety of the democratic party are squeaky clean, but c'mon Theo; You at least pretend to be smarter than this.

[Polyxo]

You mean oranges.

[nonameelf]

Ah, yeah, cool.

So, Barr gets a criminal referral from the CIA's top lawyer about Trump's dealings with Ukraine and just dismisses it out of hand.

Trump demands Barr open a criminal investigation into the Mueller investigation and so he does.

Brilliant. Super nice that our AG is 100% completely biased and is acting as Trump's personal lawyer.

[Rozz]

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