When Rod Rosenstein picked Robert Mueller to be the DoJ Special Counsel in the Trump/Russia investigation, there was much relief expressed on this site and in the Punditariat, extolling Mueller’s legendary Mr Fixit reputation dealing with sticky wickets of every shape and size, as well as his strong association with Comey, the guy who was ditched in order to derail the Kremlingate investigation in the first place.
And there was the made-for-cineplex story of Mueller and Comey standing in the breach against the machinations of the Bush cabal to get a anesthetized Ashcroft to sign off, at midnight, on their unconstitutional mass surveillance scheme.
“Yippie,” was the Liberal cry, “A tough minded, fair, and thorough prosecutor is taking this case wherever it might lead!” And the icing on the cake: Obama even asked him to hang around a couple years beyond his term to provide stability in his new Administration!
But hold on. Marcie Wheeler, as is her habitual wont, sees the forest for the trees yet again, following the news that Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, is a person of very intense interest in the FBI Kremlingate investigation:
Trump may well think Flynn is a nice man that deserves his loyalty. More likely, though, Trump knows that Flynn could sink his son-in-law. I believe that’s why Trump had to fire Comey in an effort to undercut the Flynn investigation.
And Rod Rosenstein, the survivor, just picked a partner from the firm of Kushner and Ivanka’s lawyer Jamie Gorelick, Robert Mueller, to take over the investigation into Flynn.
Why is that a problem, the naive progressive might ask?
Update: Sure enough, Reuters is reporting that Mueller, by design, may not be able to investigate Kushner or Paul Manafort.
Within hours of Mueller’s appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said.
An executive order signed by Trump in January extended that period to two years.
Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation.
Legal experts said the ethics rule can be waived by the Justice Department, which appointed Mueller. He did not represent Kushner or Manafort directly at his former law firm.
If the department did not grant a waiver, Mueller would be barred from investigating Kushner or Manafort, and this could greatly diminish the scope of the probe, experts said.
Now that last couple paragraphs will be clutched to the heart by some who might hope that he will be granted that waiver by Rosenstein (going over Session’s head like he appeared to do with Mueller’s appointment itself). But to my mind, Mueller’s professional associations are so rife with conflict in this case that his independence and impartiality are as suspect as Rosenstein’s, the guy who — let us remember — compliantly and promptly produced the quickly discarded, ridiculous pretext for Trump to fire Comey.
Go to Emptywheel and read the whole piece, “The Kushner-Comey Connection.”