Mueller Adding Resources

News  |  Jul 5, 2018

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reaching out for more help from within the Justice Department for his ongoing investigation into Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign collusion. 

Bloomberg Politics:

As Mueller pursues his probe, he’s making more use of career prosecutors from the offices of U.S. attorneys and from Justice Department headquarters, as well as FBI agents -- a sign that he may be laying the groundwork to hand off parts of his investigation eventually, several current and former U.S. officials said.

Mueller and his team of 17 federal prosecutors are coping with a higher-than-expected volume of court challenges that has added complexity in recent months, but there’s no political appetite at this time to increase the size of his staff, the officials said.

According to his most recent statement of expenditures, more money is being spent on work done by permanent Department of Justice units than on Mueller’s own dedicated operation. The DOJ units spent $9 million from the investigation’s start in May 2017 through March of this year, compared with $7.7 million spent by Mueller’s te

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Investigators in New York; Alexandria, Virginia; Pittsburgh and elsewhere have been tapped to supplement the work of Mueller’s team, the officials said. Mueller has already handed off one major investigation -- into Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen -- to the Southern District of New York.

Paul Manafort's upcoming trial – the first of two – will demand a lot of the Mueller team's attention. Prosecutors also faces challenges on other fronts. 

Mueller indicted 13 Russian individuals and three entities in February on charges of violating criminal laws with the intent to interfere with the U.S. election through the manipulation of social media.

None of the targets are in the U.S., but one of them, [Concord Management and Consulting], has forced Mueller into another legal fight in federal court. The two sides have been sparring most recently over how to protect sensitive investigative materials from disclosure. Mueller has enlisted prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington to handle the case.

Another surprise came last week when Andrew Miller, a former aide to Trump adviser Roger Stone, filed a sealed motion to fight one of Mueller’s grand jury subpoenas.

Mueller also plans to move eventually to sentencing for Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, both of whom pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.

“He’s a busy guy,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor.

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“While there’s a lot on the plate, they’re not all going on all at once," Cramer said. “His office is doing their job. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing.”

Full story: Mueller Taps More Prosecutors to Help With Growing Trump Probe (Bloomberg Politics)