Mueller Locked In Strange Legal Dispute With Mystery Grand Jury Witness

A strange case is working its way through the DC Circuit court which appears to involve special counsel Robert Mueller and a mystery grand jury witness, according to Politico.

It's unclear exactly what the two sides are fighting over, but the case appears to resemble a separate legal battle involving an associate of Trump ally Roger Stone, Andrew Miller, who is fighting a Mueller subpoena. Miller's lawyers are using the case, slated to be argued at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals early next month, to mount a broad legal assault on Mueller's authority as special counsel. In the more shadowy case, which involves an unknown person summoned before a grand jury this summer, the D.C. Circuit on Monday set a separate round of arguments for Dec. 14. The case traveled in recent months from U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, back down to Howell and back up again to the appeals court with most details shrouded in secrecy, another indication that much of Mueller's activity is taking place behind the scenes and is rarely glimpsed by the press or public. -Politico

There is no specific mention of Mueller or his team on the two dockets for the mystery grand jury fight, however earlier this month, a Politico reporter staking out the court clerk's office on the due date for a key filing in the dispute observed a man request a copy of the special counsel's latest sealed filing in order to craft a response. "The individual who asked for the secret filing declined to identify himself or his client and replied “I’m OK” when offered a reporter’s business card to remain in touch," Politico reports. Three hours later, a sealed response was submitted in the grand-jury dispute. Meanwhile on Wednesday "another detail emerged" which suggests that the secret legal battle is with Mueller; a Trump-appointed Judge with a potential conflict of interest in the Russia case bowed out of a decision in the case.

The first appeal appears to have been rejected by a D.C. Circuit panel as premature. The witness's lawyers asked the full bench of the appeals court to review that decision but a notation in court files says only nine of the court's 10 active judges participated. Bowing out was Judge Greg Katsas, the court's only member appointed by President Donald Trump. Katsas served as a deputy White House counsel before Trump tapped him for the powerful D.C. Circuit last year. At Katsas's confirmation hearing, he acknowledged working on some issues related to the Russia investigation and signaled he would take a broad view of his recusal obligations stemming from that work."In cases of doubt, I would probably err on the side of recusal," Katsas told senators last October. A spokesman for Mueller's office, Peter Carr, declined to comment on the litigation. -Politico

Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow said he has have "no idea" about the case when shown the docket. Roger Stone's attorneys similarly said that they didn't know of anyone challenging a Mueller subpoena aside from Miller, while other attorneys representing other witnesses in the Russia probe say they are unaware of who might be trading barbs with Mueller's team. So the mystery witness remains a mystery - while their legal team filed a joint motion with the special counsel's office earlier this month asking the court of appeals to expedite resolution of the dispute. What is known about the mostly sealed dispute based on the DC Circuit's docket is that the case was brought on August 16, and Judge Howell ruled on it September 19, with an initial appeal filed five days later.

"The bottom line is the most likely scenario is someone filed a motion to quash or otherwise resisted a grand jury subpoena, and the judge issued an order denying that and saying the witness needs to testify," said Gibson Dunn & Crutcher attorney Ted Boutrous, whose firm has handled grand jury-related litigation for media organizations and journalists.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-25/mueller-locked-strange-legal-dispute-mystery-grand-jury-witness

US Markets 'Dead-Cat-Bounce' As 'Smart Money' Collapses To Lehman Lows

What goes down, dead-cat-bounces back up on negligible volume… because…

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-25/us-markets-dead-cat-bounce-smart-money-collapses-lehman-lows

NBC Admits "Blue Wave Turning Purple" As Republicans Outnumber Dems In Early Voting

"Is the blue wave turning purple?" While this statement might not seem like much of a concession from left-leaning NBC News, a more thoughtful analysis reveals that it's just the latest indication of a shifting political reality - one that anti-Trump news organizations can no longer afford to ignore: That, just like in 2016, Republican turnout in the upcoming Nov. 6 midterm vote is already looking to be much higher than the polls initially predicted as issues like the migrant caravan and the contentious confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have backfired on Democrats (who had hoped they would sway moderates to vote against Republicans) and instead galvanized the conservative movement and alienated those very same moderates they had hoped to attract.

According to the latest polling data, Republican-affiliated voters are outpacing Democratic-affiliated voters in early voting in seven closely watched battleground states. This according to data from TargetSmart, which was analyzed by NBC's Data Lab. Democratic candidates have already fallen behind in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee and Texas. The only battleground state where early voting Democrats outnumbered their Republican peers was Nevada. While early votes represent only a small fraction of the total, these data appear to confirm that the surge in interest among Republican voters reported by the Wall Street Journal last week has already translated into higher turnout at the ballot box.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-25/nbc-admits-blue-wave-turning-purple-republicans-outnumber-dems-early-voting

New details on Chinese election meddling

Vice President Mike Pence announced earlier this month that China is working to unseat President Trump and meddle in U.S. elections, revealing what he said was Beijing’s plan as outlined in an internal government propaganda directive. “In June, Beijing circulated a sensitive document, entitled ‘Propaganda and Censorship Notice,’ that laid out its strategy,” Mr. Pence said in an Oct. 4 speech outlining a tougher U.S. policy toward China. “It states that China must ‘strike accurately and carefully, splitting apart different domestic groups’ in the United States,” he noted. As part of the directive, “Beijing has mobilized covert actors, front groups and propaganda outlets to shift Americans’ perception of Chinese policies,” the vice president said, noting that a senior U.S. intelligence official told him that Russian election meddling “pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country.”

White House officials said the document the vice president referred to is a confidential Chinese government directive that was published in the California-based China Digital Times. The censorship notice published online did not identify the government or Communist Party department that wrote the directive. But the notice directs China’s tightly controlled network of newspapers, television, radio and social media outlets to sharply restrict all reporting on the ongoing U.S.-Chinese trade dispute.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/24/mike-pence-outlines-chinas-election-meddling-strat/