As the jury deliberates in the first trial to emerge from the Russia investigation, The New York Times is taking a closer look at the lawyers working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and noting just how discreet they've been.
Greg D. Andres is the lead prosecutor for the government's case against Paul Manafort.
Mr. Manafort’s tax and bank fraud trial has provided the first real look at the special counsel’s team, the elusive players in the central drama of Washington political life and the subjects of fascination for the capital’s chattering classes. Tagged by President Trump as “17 angry Democrats,” they have shown themselves to be typical, if harried, government lawyers, staying across the street at the hotel to devote most of their waking hours to trying the case.
Other members of the special counsel’s office have joined Mr. Andres in the courtroom, including Andrew Weissmann, one of Mr. Mueller’s top deputies, who oversaw the prosecution from a seat in the back. Like a basketball coach during timeouts, he huddled with the others during recesses for strategy sessions, clutching a green government-issue notebook that the rest of the team used during the trial, making them easy to identify.
The prosecutors snacked on Life Savers and orange-colored Starburst candy from jars that sat near Judge T. S. Ellis III. They drank from worn foam cups marked with their initials. Next to them sat a black catering-style cart labeled “Property of SCO” — Special Counsel’s Office — piled with binders of documents.
Mr. Mueller’s spokesman, Peter Carr, whose “no comment” replies have become a running dark joke among the Washington press corps, sat among the spectators and reporters. He would not even confirm Mr. Andres’s order of Shake Shack, deferring to reportorial observation.
Andres has revealed nothing to reporters during the course of the trial but did make one remark to waiting press at his hotel last night.
He did wearily admit on Wednesday outside the gift shop, which is filled with postcards and key chains celebrating Mr. Trump’s inauguration, that he may have omitted an important detail during his final rebuttal after closing arguments.
Mueller himself has remained the most elusive.
Public sightings of him are scarce. A New York Times reporter spotted Mr. Mueller leaving a 7-Eleven convenience store in Washington on a Saturday morning this winter in a cinched-waist parka and gym clothes, walking to a small sport utility vehicle. Mr. Mueller got behind the wheel, made a U-turn to cross a double yellow line and drove away.
Most of the sightings draw buzz. A photo of Mr. Mueller waiting to cross a street in downtown Washington made the rounds on social media. Last month, Politico published a photograph of Mr. Mueller feet away from Donald Trump Jr. at a gate at Reagan National Airport. The image quickly boomeranged around Twitter and was picked up by many news outlets.
Meet the Special Counsel Team: So Careful They Won’t Even Disclose Their Shake Shack Orders (NYT)