I have continued to puzzle over why Mueller chose not to indict the Russians for their most obvious offenses.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted foreign citizens for trying to influence the American public about an election because those citizens did not register as a foreign agent nor record their financial expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission.
Actually, Mueller indicted the Russians only for violating 18 U.S.C. §371, 1343 and 1344, and §1082(A).
Too many people know the facts behind the Steele dossier, and if he had charged the Russians with meddling in the presidential election under §30121, he soon would have faced questions about why he didn't indict Steele-and Glenn Simpson, Perkins, Coie, Clinton campaign officials, and perhaps Clinton-for the same offense.
I think that is why Mueller chose not to indict the Russians for meddling in a U.S. presidential election.
So with all due respect to Lowenstein, I think that Bob Mueller could well have believed that indicting the Russians under §30121 would open a "Can of worms" with regard to Steele, even if Steele would have had plausible defenses to the potential charge.
The question remains: why did Mueller recite in the indictment's first paragraph that it is against the law for foreign nationals to spend money to influence U. S. elections, implicitly recognizing that that was the essence of what the Russians did, and then not charge them with that crime? I, at least, haven't seen a better answer.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/why-mueller-didnt-indict-the-russians-for-meddling-in-the-presidential-election.php
Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted foreign citizens for trying to influence the American public about an election because those citizens did not register as a foreign agent nor record their financial expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission.
Actually, Mueller indicted the Russians only for violating 18 U.S.C. §371, 1343 and 1344, and §1082(A).
Too many people know the facts behind the Steele dossier, and if he had charged the Russians with meddling in the presidential election under §30121, he soon would have faced questions about why he didn't indict Steele-and Glenn Simpson, Perkins, Coie, Clinton campaign officials, and perhaps Clinton-for the same offense.
I think that is why Mueller chose not to indict the Russians for meddling in a U.S. presidential election.
So with all due respect to Lowenstein, I think that Bob Mueller could well have believed that indicting the Russians under §30121 would open a "Can of worms" with regard to Steele, even if Steele would have had plausible defenses to the potential charge.
The question remains: why did Mueller recite in the indictment's first paragraph that it is against the law for foreign nationals to spend money to influence U. S. elections, implicitly recognizing that that was the essence of what the Russians did, and then not charge them with that crime? I, at least, haven't seen a better answer.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/why-mueller-didnt-indict-the-russians-for-meddling-in-the-presidential-election.php
No comments:
Post a Comment