Judge rejects Mueller's request for delay in Russian troll farm case Lawyers call out Mueller's pettifoggery. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/04/mueller-russia-interference-election-case-delay-570627 A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller’s request to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case charging three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens with using social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In a brief order Saturday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich offered no explanation for her decision to deny a request prosecutors made Friday to put off the scheduled Wednesday arraignment for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three firms charged in the case. The 13 people charged in the high-profile indictment in February are considered unlikely to ever appear in a U.S. court. The three businesses accused of facilitating the alleged Russian troll farm operation — the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management, and Concord Catering — were also expected to simply ignore the American criminal proceedings. Last month, however, a pair of Washington-area lawyers suddenly surfaced in the case, notifying the court that they represent Concord Management. POLITICO reported at the time that the move appeared to be a bid to force Mueller’s team to turn over relevant evidence to the Russian firm and perhaps even to bait prosecutors into an embarrassing dismissal in order to avoid disclosing sensitive information. On Friday, Mueller’s prosecutors disclosed that Concord’s attorneys, Eric Dubelier and Kate Seikaly, had made a slew of discovery requests demanding nonpublic details about the case and the investigation. Prosecutors also asked a judge to postpone the formal arraignment of Concord Management set for next week. The prosecution team sought the delay on the grounds that it’s unclear whether Concord Management formally accepted the court summons related to the case. Mueller’s prosecutors also revealed that they tried to deliver the summonses for Concord and IRA through the Russian government, without success. “The [U.S.] government has attempted service of the summonses by delivering copies of them to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia, to be delivered to the defendants,” prosecutors wrote. “That office, however, declined to accept the summonses. The government has submitted service requests to the Russian government pursuant to a mutual legal assistance treaty. To the government’s knowledge, no further steps have been taken within Russia to effectuate service.” Mueller’s team sent a copy of the formal summons to Dubelier and Seikaly and asked them to accept it on behalf of Concord Management, but Dubelier wrote back on Monday saying that the government’s attempt to serve the summons was defective under court rules. He did not elaborate. The three companies named in the indictment are all reported to be controlled by a Russian businessman known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “chef,” Yevgeny Prigozhin. He’s also one of the 13 individuals criminally charged in the case. In their request on Friday to put off the arraignment, prosecutors included the extensive demands for information that the lawyers for Concord Management have set forth since they stepped forward last month. “Until the Court has an opportunity to determine if Concord was properly served, it would be inadvisable to conduct an initial appearance and arraignment at which important rights will be communicated and a plea entertained,” attorneys Jeannie Rhee, Rush Atkinson and Ryan Dickey wrote. “That is especially true in the context of this case, which involves a foreign corporate defendant, controlled by another, individual foreign defendant, that has already demanded production of sensitive intelligence gathering, national security, and foreign affairs information.” The Mueller team proposed that both sides file briefs in the coming weeks on the issues of whether Concord has been properly served. In a blunt response Saturday morning, Concord’s attorneys accused Mueller's team of ignoring the court’s rules and suggesting a special procedure for the Russian firm without any supporting legal authority. “Defendant voluntarily appeared through counsel as provided for in [federal rules], and further intends to enter a plea of not guilty. Defendant has not sought a limited appearance nor has it moved to quash the summons. As such, the briefing sought by the Special Counsel’s motion is pettifoggery,” Dubelier and Seikaly wrote. The Concord lawyers said Mueller’s attorneys were seeking “to usurp the scheduling authority of the Court” by waiting until Friday afternoon to try to delay a proceeding scheduled for next Wednesday. Dubelier and Seikaly complained that the special counsel’s office has not replied at all to Concord’s discovery requests. The lawyers, who work for Pittsburgh-based law firm Reed Smith, also signaled Concord intends to assert its speedy trial rights, putting more pressure on the special counsel’s office to turn over records related to the case. Friedrich, a Trump appointee based in Washington, sided with Concord and said the arraignment will proceed as scheduled Wednesday afternoon. The indictment, obtained by Mueller but announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, accused the defendants of mounting an “information warfare” operation in connection with the 2016 election. The IRA, long suspected of ties to the Kremlin, allegedly used social media, email and other means to manipulate “unwitting” American citizens and Trump campaign officials into protests, demonstrations and the recirculation of media messages. Most of the interventions were intended to benefit Trump or demean his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, the indictment alleged.
I love this. These Judges better stand the fuck up and grow some fucking balls and end this fucking charade.
If this case against the Russian Troll Farm continues to go badly and further embarrasses Mueller it will just reinforce the perception to the public that the original intent of the special investigation into Russian Election Interference is being trivialized by Mueller and the overarching goal for Mueller is a witch hunt against Trump. Politico, which is a left of center DC political media outlet warned a few days ago: "... that Concord Management's aggressive lawyering could result in an “embarrassing dismissal.” If that happens, then Mueller should indeed probably be fired. He would have failed at the originally stated reason for the special investigation to begin with.
It could be embarassing too because if someone actually shows up to defend themselves they will immediately start exercising their right to discovery and cross-examination which will reveal far more than team mueller wants revealed. I must say this little development takes me by surprise because Muellers indictment of a pantload was really a public relations move more than a legal move. All the lefties were crowing the next day about how it is not a witchhunt because mueller just indicted all these ruskies. Yet, anyone who knows anything about the process knows that you can indict anyone and if they dont show up to defend themselves and can't be extradited you dont have to worry about it but you get credit for the scalps. That's fine. I am up for surprises.
I believe it was you who made the point that Mueller is a legal bully who uses extortionate tactics to get pleas. When faced with real opposition, he crumbles.
Yup. Look at his tactics. It's all mafia shit. Go after family, hype up some shit, squeeze em to coerce them to roll on Trump. There is no case. There is no evidence. Mueller is honestly a scumbag of a human.
Look at Flynn. The mans career was totally disgraced and financially bankrupted, because he met with the same Russian Ambassador Obama and Hill met with hundreds of times. Mueller went after Flynns son. Copped Flynn into a perjury guilty plea on a process crime (not recounting the exact wording of a convo from 6 months ago.....). Then the Judge ordered Mueller to furnish any withheld evidence that could exonerate Flynn. And guess what? McCabe (then Deputy to Comey at FBI), told Congressional investigators he didn't think Flynn lied during the interview. There you have it. Mueller fucking lied. This whole thing is an orchestrated coupe attempt by the Deep State, cheerleaded by the Democrats, who do not give a fuck about civil liberties or the truth, if it means they can depose Trump. This is all its about. Deposing Trump by any means necessary. And that's a coupe. So if they succeed, then it's violence. And they will have brought it on themselves. You know all those little Live Action Role Players with their AR's and mommys spit still on their cheeks? Ya, well those kids will get wiped fucking out. Along with the pussy-hat crew, transys and the legions of gender confused PC soyboys. Conservatives play defense all day while Democrats play offense all day. The Christian imperative is incorrect, in this context, because it is abusive/violent. Christ and his Apostles carried swords. As should we. Mueller, Liberals, the Media, the Globalists, they all need to stop. Because they're playing with a fucking powder keg.