Robert Mueller's America--A Farce Wrapped in Hypocrisy by Publius Tacitus

The indictment unveiled last Friday by Assistant Attorney General Rob Rosenstein, charging 13 Russian nationals with posting "false" information on the internet would be great grist for a satirical send up of government incompetence except the underlying premise of the charges is nothing short of a road map for authoritarian governments who will want to treat anyone who dares post contrarian material on the internet as a criminal. Let me state it succinctly--if you posted a blog suggesting that Hillary deserved to go to jail then you might be a criminal.

The indictment is nothing more than a rancid puff pastry. It pretends to have a mountain of evidence of evil doing by the Russians. But if you simply ask probing questions about the underlying proof of the misdeeds you will quickly discover that this document is a piece of political theater rather than an actual listing of criminal deeds. What do I mean?

The indictment states that "THE ORGANIZATION" (i.e., THE INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY) had the strategic purpose of sowing political discord in the United States. Okay. How do we know that? Did the owner of the IRA make such a statement or is there a written document or recorded conversation in which he made the claim? We do not know. There is not one piece of solid evidence in the entire document that substantiates that claim. It is nothing more than an assertion of belief. That is not how one writes an indictment alleging criminal conduct.

Also worth noting that the indictment provides not hard evidence, either documentary or the claim by a confidential informant, of THE ORGANIZATION acting on behalf of or at the direction of the Russian Government. Again, it is assumed but nothing even approaching solid evidence is proffered in this document.

There are three Federal statutes that the Russian citizens are alleged to have violated:

 

18 USC Section 371:

The general conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, creates an offense "[i]f two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose. (emphasis added). See Project, Tenth Annual Survey of White Collar Crime, 32 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 137, 379-406 (1995)(generally discussing § 371). . . .

The intent required for a conspiracy to defraud the government is that the defendant possessed the intent (a) to defraud, (b) to make false statements or representations to the government or its agencies in order to obtain property of the government, or that the defendant performed acts or made statements that he/she knew to be false, fraudulent or deceitful to a government agency, which disrupted the functions of the agency or of the government. It is sufficient for the government to prove that the defendant knew the statements were false or fraudulent when made. The government is not required to prove the statements ultimately resulted in any actual loss to the government of any property or funds, only that the defendant's activities impeded or interfered with legitimate governmental functions.

18 USC Section 1349:

Any person who attempts or conspires to commit any offense under this chapter shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt or conspiracy.

18 USC Sections 1028 A (a) (1) and 2:

(a)Whoever, in a circumstance described in subsection (c) of this section—

(1)

knowingly and without lawful authority produces an identification document, authentication feature, or a false identification document;

(2)

knowingly transfers an identification document, authentication feature, or a false identification document knowing that such document or feature was stolen or produced without lawful authority

 There is actual criminal conduct listed in the indictment, but that pertains to identity theft and other irregular financial activity. Left unanswered, however, is the explanation for how the Mueller team discovered these activities. Short of a cooperating witness, it appears that material from the NSA was turned over to Mueller and his team. We will likely never find out because none of the people named in the indictment will ever be tried. 

This case is far from a slam dunk for the Mueller team. If it ever did come to trial there are significant gaps and vulnerabilities in the indictment that a competent defense attorney could savage. Nope. This is not about punishing lawbreakers. This is political theater designed to feed the meme promoting anti-Russian hysteria. 

An objective examination of the "meddling" by this Russian company would conclude that the activities of the IRA bordered on irrelevant and ineffective. I am surprised that so many Americans are ignorant of two critical facts. First, Russia has been carrying out intelligence operations, including a whole host of propaganda schemes, inside the United States and against the United States for at least 80 years. Duh!!

Second, the United States has carried out comparable operations inside and against Russia/the USSR and has been involved in the covert interference in elections around the world.

That is the hypocrisy. We are having a hissy fit over laughable internet shenanigans by a small group of Russians who were poorly funded and generated little activity, while ignoring our own history of having actually overthrown other legitimately elected governments. There it is. Farce and hypocrisy.

Comments

[mikee]

Mueller wants to know what Manafort knows.

[Jack]

TTG #78

It is good that Manafort, Gates and Awan will be prosecuted for money laundering, bank and tax fraud. If only they would expand the remit to cover a 100 mile radius of the Mall. That would keep an army of prosecutors busy for several years. Now if the radius is expanded a bit further to also include Manhattan then a division strength prosecutorial team would be required.

The point I'm making is that when it comes to financial and tax crimes the decision to prosecute is fundamentally political as these crimes are widespread among the political, governmental, & financial ekites. The only reason Manafort is being nailed is due to his association with Trump.

[Jack]

"...he could be Director of the CIA right now."

lol.

[Fred]

TTG,

I'm well aware of Awan not being connected to the Russians. Manafort and Gates were using their position to mine various House databases including those with classified information? No. They pulled a tax dodge? So what. That's not Russian interference with the 2016 election.

Leaky,

Russia is not Ukraine. He did get fired. There's still the spending of $4.5 billion dollars of our money that should be audited.

Anna,

I'm aware of the Fox news talking points about uranium one. It's getting less traction than the news about tide pods.

[confusedponderer]

Jack,
I find that accusation of money laundering plausible when folks are dealing with oligarchs, be they in Russia (or elsewhere).

So Manafort made deals with Ukie oligarchs? And he didn't have any concerns where they got their money from?

Either folks like Manafort don't have the mental capacity to think about it or they don't care about trifles like that.

Point is that it is not irrelevant how folks like such oligarchs got to their money. There is a good chance that they came to wealth by crime and "taking-and-keeping" (without paying taxes) things in the process of privatisation of old soviet state property and corporations.

In that case one has to underline the fact that even just taking a credit from such a dude is already "laundering money".

One can of course ignore that. There's an old German phrase about how that phenomenon works - it's called to to give the 'brown jacket' a "Persilschein" - or a 'white washing' - an assertion that the jacket is and always was white.

When you juggle with crap, you will stink sooner rather than later. And when you're bad at juggling there's an increased chance to place a load on your head. Manafort apparently is a poorer juggler.

[confusedponderer]

Publius Tacitus,
re: "Second, the United States has carried out comparable operations inside and against Russia/the USSR and has been involved in the covert interference in elections around the world."

I would add to that that the US in fact did interfere quite overt in elections around the world - topping that invisibility and subtlety with a ... table dance - "F*** the EU" Nuland and iirc McCain handing out cookies to Ukies on the Maidan in Kiev.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/shared/npr/styles/x_large/nprshared/201312/250227481.jpg

In comparison to that Ukraine stunt "Russiagate" in comparison comes across as extremely subtle and cautious. It was much cheaper also.

[Leaky Ranger]

Trump apparatchik Rick Gates to plead guilty
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/rick-gates-guilty-plea-mueller-investigation.html

[turcopolier]

Leaky Ranger

How does this connect to DJT? Guilt by association? pl

[Leaky Ranger]

Fair question. But Manafort was not forced on Trump, he was hand-picked by Trump. I would bet that a deep look at Trump's tax returns would reveal extremely strong links, but I freely admit that's conjecture.

Mueller now has enumerated more than 100 criminal counts against 19 named individuals, and Gates would be the fourth guilty plea from Trump's inner circle. That ain't hay!

[Joe100]

The Clinton's, Blair and Biden all have well documented connections to Ukranian oligarchs like Pinchuk. Such connections could have no other plausible rationale than $$$ (somehow/someway).

[Dave]

We know only a tiny fraction of the evidence that Mueller has. I think your hypothesis has more to do with your love of Trump rather than reality.

Mueller is a conservative republican. He is one of them. Wouldn't you be interested to know how the Russians hacked our election rather than engaging in partisan demagoguery?

[Dave]

Our conservative republican National Security Advisor said that evidence of Russian meddling is "incontrovertible."
What do you know that our National Security Advisor doesn't?

[Dave]

Mueller is a consummate, non-partisan professional.
He is a conservative republican.
Our conservative republican National Security Advisor says that proof of Russian collusion is "incontrovertible.
McMaster has access to information that none of us do.
If he says it's a fact, he is to be believed.
It's important to note that this is not a "witch hunt."
The FBI is heavily republican, putting the lie to conservative conspiracy theories.

[blue peacock]

"Mueller is a consummate, non-partisan professional. He is a conservative republican."

What you smoking? Seems you have some good stuff.

[blue peacock]

"I would bet that a deep look at Trump's tax returns would reveal extremely strong links.."

How much do you want to bet?

The IRS have been taking a "deep look" at Trump's tax returns for some time. Have you ever been under an IRS tax audit?

[Dave]

no smoke necessary, just stating facts.
Conservative republican National Security Adviser, General McMaster claims that Russian meddling in our election is a fact. What credible, non-conspiracy theory information do you have that says otherwise?