U.S.
MUELLER’S FILING COULD BE DELAYED PENDING DONALD TRUMP JR., JARED KUSHNER’S INDICTMENTS, SAYS EX-U.S. ATTORNEY
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A former U.S. attorney predicted on Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report may be delayed pending the possible indictments of Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner for lying to Congress.
During a segment on MSNBC, host Alex Witt and legal analyst Barbara McQuade discussed Mueller’s impending report and how the long-awaited probe will finally come to an end.
“Based on everything we do know so far, how do you think this probe will wrap up? Do you think there will be more indictments? Does it appear to be leading down that road?” Witt asked.
“The fact that all of the documents that continue to come out, continue to have redactions in them suggest that there are still investigations that are not quite wrapped up,” McQuade suggested. “Now it could be when someone is investigated that doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a charge—it means charges are being looked at. If they find evidence that the crimes were committed, there could be charges. One area under scrutiny is whether other people have lied to Congress.”
“Michael Cohen admitted to lying about Trump Tower Moscow and forced to plead guilty to that offense even though it brought no additional prison time and there were redactions from his sentencing memo where around the topic that talked about providing valuable information in the form of substantial assistance about circulating his testimony regarding that matter with others,” the former U.S. attorney continued. “So I would think that if others lied about that matter, other matters, we might see charges against them. That would include Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner.”
McQuade added: “I think there are some loose ends that remain for Robert Mueller so I don’t know that the report is imminent but it may be winding down sometime in the coming months.”
Amid expectations that Mueller’s office will be imminently delivering the long-awaited report, a senior U.S. Justice Department official revealed on Friday that the investigation won’t be dropping next week. "Any reports that the Special Counsel's report will be delivered to the DOJ (Department of Justice) during the week of Feb. 28 are incorrect," the official said anonymously.
Later that night, prosecutors with Mueller’s office filed Paul Manafort’s 800+ page-long sentencing memo under seal.
The special counsel’s office has previously recommended 25 years in prison and millions in fines for Trump’s former campaign chairman after he was found guilty of lying to prosecutors and breaching his plea agreement. Although Mueller did not indicate how much time Manafort spend in prison in the sentencing memo, he did assert that the Republican consultant "repeatedly and brazenly" broke the law, both before and after he was indicted.