Robert Mueller’s big Friday
First it was October, 2018, then November, then by the new year, then for sure by February, then last week for sure. Now, people still swear Mueller will be all done by mid-March (that’s one week from now), and that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will simultaneously leave the Justice Department.
Despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary, a part of me jumps on the bandwagon every time. I get up early every Friday, turn on the news and expect to be greeted with images of pre-dawn raids and explosive headlines about Jared Kushner, and Don Jr. indictments along with at least a handful of others. This Friday was no different.
Instead of pre-dawn raids, what we got this Friday is another tiny indication that even if the Special Counsel does issue some kind of report soon, the investigation is far from over. The US District Court out of the Eastern District of Virginia has a secret Mueller-related grand jury, and that grand jury is not expected to wrap up its work for up to eighteen months.
That’s right, we could be wondering if this is “the Friday,” for seventy-eight more Fridays. Along with this still-secret grand jury, we have the secret foreign government-owned financial institution fighting a subpoena, along with hundreds and hundreds of redacted pages of court filings. All these secrets only stay secret because of ongoing active investigations.
There are more pages redacted and investigations that are ongoing than there are things un-redacted and wrapped up. Next Friday, I’ll be waiting again, along with hundreds of other people, expecting the Mueller investigation to end with a big bang, but I suspect the next big bang will still be just the beginning.
Cheryl Kelley lives in the DC area with her husband and young son. She is active in government and politics.