usmbacker
Hall of Famer
Posts: 17,677
Joined: Nov 2003
Reputation: 1320
I Root For: Beer
Location: Margaritaville
|
Note To Team Mueller: If You Don’t Indict, You Can’t Incite
Completely improper for them to leak, if it’s true.
Quote:I’ve covered the Justice Department for three decades, and seldom have I seen a story like the one published in The New York Times this week under the headline, “Some on Mueller’s Team Say Report Was More Damaging Than Barr Revealed.”
What concerned me most is that the story’s anonymous allegations reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the role prosecutors play, including special counsels such as Robert Mueller.
The job of prosecutors is not, as the Times headline suggested, to pen “damaging” narratives about people they couldn’t indict. And it’s not their job to air those people’s dirty laundry, or that of suspects outside of a grand jury room or a courtroom.
Mueller concluded there wasn’t evidence President Trump colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 election, and therefore no indictment was warranted. And he punted on the question of obstruction, leaving his bosses — Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — to determine that there wasn’t enough evidence to indict the president on that charge.
And, most significantly, there were no other people charged. That means Trump legally could not be named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an obstruction plot.
At that point, no federal prosecutor has the right to impugn an uncharged investigative target’s reputation through anonymous leaks or literary reports. They are not allowed to anonymously inject into the court of public opinion any “damaging” information about what they couldn’t succeed at offering in a court of law as proof of criminality.
Link
|
|
04-07-2019 10:19 AM |
|
Owl 69/70/75
Just an old rugby coach
Posts: 80,804
Joined: Sep 2005
Reputation: 3211
I Root For: RiceBathChelsea
Location: Montgomery, TX
|
RE: Note To Team Mueller: If You Don’t Indict, You Can’t Incite
Good points.
|
|
04-07-2019 10:24 AM |
|
SoMs Eagle
Heisman
Posts: 8,998
Joined: Nov 2011
Reputation: 683
I Root For: Mighty Mustard
Location:
|
RE: Note To Team Mueller: If You Don’t Indict, You Can’t Incite
So...you think the left cares?
|
|
04-07-2019 10:29 AM |
|
bullet
Legend
Posts: 66,842
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation: 3315
I Root For: Texas, UK, UGA
Location:
|
RE: Note To Team Mueller: If You Don’t Indict, You Can’t Incite
(04-07-2019 10:29 AM)SoMs Eagle Wrote: So...you think the left cares?
It was never about indictments or the phony collusion story in the first place.
|
|
04-07-2019 11:39 AM |
|