Preet Bharara says Robert Mueller’s latest Trump-Russia move today is even bigger than the grand jury
Yesterday it was revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has had a grand jury going for the past several weeks in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, and it landed in the media like a bombshell. Today Mueller made an entirely different kind of move in the Trump-Russia investigation which got far less media attention. But according to respected former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who would know these kinds of things, today’s move is even bigger than the grand jury.
Today’s story is that Mueller has ordered Trump’s White House to turn over all documents relating to the paid foreign agent work that Michael Flynn was doing for Turkey and Russia while he was working for the Trump campaign, as reported by the New York Times (link). To a layperson this might sound like a mere procedural move. But Bharara sees it differently, tweeting that “If true, request for WH documents re: Flynn’s work for Turkey is much more significant than breathless reporting about [grand jury] yesterday. Much.” (link).
One of Bharara’s followers, also an attorney, replied that this was “Direct evidence of a crime is being sought, not the mere setting up of an investigative body.” This prompted Bharara to respond “Precisely” (link). While he didn’t go into further detail, there are some additional specific legal reasons as to why this could be a much bigger break in the case than the grand jury.
For one thing, this is the first known instance of Robert Mueller making any such demands of the White House. So this furthers the notion that Mueller is has moved past the insular phase of his investigation, and is now prepared to take on Trump and his associates in direct fashion. It’s also common for attorneys to demand documents that they already have copies of. That way, if the other side refuses to comply, or panics and destroys its own copies, it’s evidence of bad faith intent.
