Earlier this week, the government revealed that a grand jury
sitting in Washington, D.C., indicted a former Trump presidential campaign
chairman and his former deputy and business partner for numerous felonies.
Both were accused of working
as foreign agents and failing to report that status to the federal government,
using shell corporations to launder income and obstruction of justice by lying
to the federal government.
The financial crimes are
alleged to have occurred from 2008 to 2014, and the obstruction charges from
2014 to 2017. At the same time it announced the above, the government revealed
that a low-level former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George
Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and become a government
witness.
Does any of this relate to
President Donald Trump? Here is the back story.
At the same time that Paul
Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates were guiding the Trump campaign in
the summer of 2016, Russian agents were manipulating American social media
sites so as to arouse chaos in general and animosity toward Hillary Clinton in
particular. The Department of Justice appointed former FBI Director Robert
Mueller as independent counsel to determine whether any Americans had
criminally helped the Russians.
The
alleged crimes of Manafort and Gates appear to have nothing to do with Trump,
nor have they any facial relationship to the Russians. So why were these two
indicted by a grand jury hearing evidence about alleged American assistance to
Russian interference with the 2016 presidential campaign? Suicide Pact: The Radi...
When prosecutors confront a complex series of potentially
criminal events, they often do not know at the outset of their investigation
where the evidence will lead them. Sometimes they come upon a person who they
believe has knowledge of facts they seek and that person declines to speak with
them. Such a refusal to speak to the government is perfectly lawful in America,
yet it often triggers a prosecution of the potential witness so that
prosecutors may squeeze him — not literally, of course — for evidence to which
they believe he can lead them.
The ultimate target of
Mueller’s investigation is President Trump. It is standard operating procedure
when prosecutors have a high-level target to charge those below the target with
something just to get them to cooperate. Though the charges against Manafort
and Gates need not be related to the Russians or to Trump, they must be real.
It’s clear they are, as each is facing more than 20 years in prison. Mueller
believes that that prospect is enough to dispatch their lawyers to make deals
with him.
The danger of such a deal is
that Manafort and Gates may offer to tell Mueller what they think he wants to
hear — even if it is not truthful — so that they can have their prison exposure
lessened.
The Freedom Answer Boo... There is more danger
in the seemingly smallest of this week’s Mueller-generated events. Papadopoulos
was interviewed voluntarily by the FBI on Jan. 27. He was arrested on July 27
for lying to FBI agents during that interview. In a secret federal court
proceeding on Oct. 5, he pleaded guilty.
In a profound miscarriage of
justice, federal law permits FBI agents to lie to us but makes it a crime for
us to lie to them. Nevertheless, why was the Papadopoulos guilty plea kept
secret? What was he doing between his arrest and his plea and between his plea
and its revelation?
Judges are very reluctant to
close their courtroom doors in any criminal proceeding, even if both the
prosecutors and the defense counsel request it. The public has a right to know
whom the government is prosecuting and what deals or punishments it may be
obtaining. Yet if prosecutors can convince a judge that public knowledge of the
existence of a guilty plea might harm an ongoing criminal investigation, the
judge can keep the plea secret.
That is apparently what
happened here. It appears that Papadopoulos was gathering evidence for Mueller,
probably by talking to his former Trump campaign colleagues while wired — a
process that would have been fruitless if his guilty plea had become public.
It Is Dangerous to Be ... Because Papadopoulos
admitted under oath that he lied to FBI agents, the courts will treat his guilt
as certain. That gives Mueller great leverage with him. It also gives
Papadopoulos great incentive to help Mueller — truthfully or not — because he
knows he is going to federal prison. He also knows that if Mueller likes what
he hears, a five-year prison term could be reduced to six months.
Hence, Papadopoulos could be
a treasure-trove for Mueller on the production of any evidence linking the
Trump campaign and the Russians and any evidence of Trump’s personal knowledge
or acquiescence. Papadopoulos has already produced a wild tale about meetings
with a Russian professor and a female Russian government agent in London that
the FBI apparently believes.
Is this any way to conduct a
prosecution?
I have argued for years that
squeezing defendants and witnesses by threats and promises to get them to spill
the beans is a form of extortion or bribery — not much different from the
extortion and bribery that the government regularly prosecutes. “You tell us what
we want to hear and we will ask a judge to go easy on you. If not, you will
suffer great losses.” It is bad enough that the feds can legally lie to us and
get away with it, but can they also legally threaten and bribe witnesses to
testify against us and get away with it? Can they do this to the president?
In a word, yes. My arguments
have fallen on deaf ears. Squeezing witnesses and defendants is a way of life
for federal prosecutors. For the president, it is the tip of a dangerous
iceberg.
Reprinted
with the author’s permission.
Andrew P. Napolitano [send him mail], a former
judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at
Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written nine books on the U.S.
Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact:
The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American
Liberty. To find out more about Judge Napolitano and to read
features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit creators.com.
Copyright © 2017 Andrew P. Napolitano
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