(12-02-2017 01:22 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  I was talking with an old law school buddy this morning who has made a career as a prosecutor in the US Attorney's office of his district. In passing he mentioned something very interesting that I had not previously known about the process, and his reflections on the current Mueller direction.

He said that the first indictments in a scheme *can* be ancillary --- he terms them the 'flipping' round.

The second and others really need to be indictments with counts included that are 'scheme-related'. He mentioned that this sets the structure of the scheme for further putative (and higher up) defendants.

With Manafort and Flynn, these guys are literally at the supposed center of the scheme. Yet all the charges brought so far are 'process' indictments. Literally there are no indictments at all that are central to the supposed collusion scheme.

He also directed me to two very recent article by Andy McCarthy at NRO that neatly dovetailed what he set out.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/45...icy-israel

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/45...estigation

With *zero* scheme based charges against two people in the supposed center of the collusion, and the massively inflated charges on Manafort (ratcheting a misdemeanor 'failure to file' into 4 felony process counts), I think the doubts on this are really beginning to show.

If no 'scheme-based' information or charges come in the next drop, I think the evidence will be clear about whether this is the witch-hunt some of us here thought it would turn into.

I'm still astonished at the weight of the ABC News disclosure. But, unfortunately, I am not astonished at the weight of the crap-level reporting being done on this and crap-level spinning that accompanies it via the headlines. The media is recognizing the Trump administration as the deathmatch that it really could be for them.

Agreed about us likely seeing scheme based charges next, and that if there aren’t then either there is little to no evidence or there is only going to be one, giant scheme charge.

That is why I’m more confident charges will come, as opposed the the opposite. A lot of legal talking heads had pointed this out when the first batch of charges were filed, and it was made very clear that Flynn was getting off lightly because he is cooperating.