Another High-Profile Prosecutor Left The Mueller Team

A Justice Department official who worked on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s case is leaving the special counsel’s office, a spokesman for Robert Mueller said Monday.

“Zainab Ahmad has concluded her detail with the Special Counsel’s Office but will continue to represent the office on specific pending matters that were assigned to her during her detail,” special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement, first reported by Yahoo! News.

Ahmad’s departure is the latest signal that Mueller’s probe is nearing its end. Carr confirmed Thursday that Andrew Weissmann, the high-profile Mueller prosecutor who handled cases against Paul Manafort, is planning to leave the team.

Ahmad, a counterterrorism prosecutor, is one of the Mueller team members to sign Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI regarding his contacts with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn has cooperated with several investigations as part of his plea agreement. He is expected to testify later in 2019 in a trial against his former business partner, Bijan Kian. Kian was indicted on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent of Turkey.

Ahmad and Weissmann recently came under scrutiny over their interactions during the 2016 campaign with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

It recently emerged that Ohr testified to Congress on Aug. 28, 2018, that he briefed Ahmed, Weissmann and FBI officials in September 2016 about his interactions with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the anti-Trump dossier.

Ohr, who served as a back-channel between Steele and the FBI, said he told the Justice Department and FBI officials Steele’s reporting on the Trump campaign was unverified and needed further investigation. Nevertheless, the FBI relied heavily on the dossier’s allegations to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/18/zainab-ahmad-mueller-flynn/

The Amount Of Meth Pouring Across The US Southern Border Is Skyrocketing

Law enforcement officials are confiscating substantially larger amounts of methamphetamine as Mexican drug cartels increasingly push the drug into U.S. markets.

A drug-tracking system from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicates that a total of 347,807 law enforcement meth seizures were submitted to various labs across the country in 2017, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The number is a 118 percent hike from 2010 submissions.

U.S. meth-related deaths hit 6,762 in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is approximately 3.5 times the amount in 2011. While specific data beyond 2016 is not currently available, provisional data through July 2018 indicates that meth-related deaths are still climbing.

The flood of meth, a popular synthetic drug that is made in labs, has made it much more affordable for U.S. consumers and inflamed the drug overdose crisis currently plaguing the country.

“Everybody’s biggest fear is what’s it going to look like if meth hits us like fentanyl did,” Jon DeLena of DEA’s New England office said to the Wall Street Journal. Access to fentanyl, a dangerously potent synthetic opioid, has led to mass overdoses across the country. Many fear that the increased trafficking of meth could result in similar death rates.

DEA officials are blaming the situation on Mexican drug cartels, which are more aggressively pushing the drug into the U.S. interior as they attempt to rival South American-made cocaine. The synthetic stimulant is now becoming more prevalent in many regions — such as the U.S. Northeast — where meth was more-or-less scarce.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/18/meth-border-mexico-trump/