Two prosecutors are leaving the special counsel's team to return to their previous jobs now that their work on the Paul Manafort case is complete.
Brandon Van Grack and Kyle Freeny — government lawyers with key roles in bringing the case against the former Trump campaign chairman over tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to register as a foreign agent for his lobbying work in Ukraine — are going back to their prior posts at the Justice Department, according to Mueller spokesman Peter Carr.
Van Grack has already returned to DOJ’s National Security Division, while Freeny is ending her detail in mid-October and will return to the Criminal Division’s money laundering and asset recovery session.
With the two departures, the Mueller prosecution team is now down to 13 staffers involved in the core investigation into potential Trump campaign coordination with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, Carr said.
At its peak, the team consisted of 17 lawyers — not including Mueller.
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Van Grack played a role on the Mueller trial team in the Virginia bank- and tax-fraud case. He also worked on the case that led to [Michael] Flynn’s guilty plea last December over lying to the FBI about conversations with Russian officials. Van Grack will continue to represent Mueller on any specific pending matters assigned to him while he was on detail, Carr said.
Freeny, meantime, is leaving “because she has concluded her work here,” Carr said.
Two other junior-level Mueller prosecutors — Ryan Dickey and Brian Richardson — left the special counsel’s team earlier this summer.
A DC defense attorney working on the Russia investigation suspects the departures are a sign the Mueller probe is nearing its conclusion.
“They’re downsizing,” the lawyer said. “I think they wouldn’t be letting people go unless they’re winding down, especially the way these things work.”
Politico notes the special counsel has three key sentencing hearings coming up in the next few months and still is working on getting a sit-down with the president.
Several reports are also due in quick succession from Mueller or federal prosecutors after the midterm elections as they move to sentence Manafort, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Separately, Mueller’s lawyers are still negotiating with the president’s lawyers for an interview with President Donald Trump.
Mueller ‘downsizing’ with departure of 2 prosecutors (Politico)