It’s time for some Fun With Criminal Law. (That means more IRAC) Remember, IRAC is a method of legal analysis. IRAC stands for: Issue Rule Analysis Conclusion Let’s start with this one: Issue: Did Trump obstruct justice when he ordered McGahn (WH counsel) to fire Mueller, and then ordered McGahn to lie about it? For …
Vol. II lays out the factual findings from the Mueller investigation regarding obstruction of justice. A few comments about “facts” and “evidence.” Not all evidence is admissible in court. The rules of evidence are intended to screen out unreliable evidence (like hearsay). There are a few problems with piecing together the story from news reporting—which …
Reading the Mueller Report, Part VII: Mueller Does IRAC Read More »
I wasn’t planning to write about Barr or anything extraneous to the Mueller Report as I march through my reading and analysis. But then I read Vol II (Obstruction) pages 1-2, and I have no choice. I believe these pages of the report can only be read in a wider context. Shortly after Barr issued …
All those links—but no “coordination.” How can that be? Mueller’s task was to determine whether there were “links and/or coordination” between the Trump Campaign and Russia. Mueller found links galore. But it turns out that finding “coordination” — or, to use the legal term, “conspiracy”— proved more difficult. Part of Mueller’s mandate was to find …
Reading the Mueller Report, V: Links but no “coordination” Read More »
Why weren’t crimes charged as a result of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting? We’ll begin with the “facts.” By “facts” I mean what the prosecutors have enough evidence to prove. The meeting was proposed to Jr. in an email from Goldstone, at the request of his then-client Emin Agalarov (son of Russian real …
Reading the Mueller Report, Part IV: The June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting Read More »
Q: Why weren’t more crimes charged from the behavior described in Vol. I? First reason: Special Counsel (SC) was not able to collect all the evidence for a variety of reasons (Mueller Report, page 10) Some individuals evoked their 5th Amendment rights and SC determined that they were not appropriate candidates for grants of immunity. …
Reading the Mueller Report, Part III: Why More Crimes Weren’t Charged Read More »
While the Russian government was busy interfering in the presidential election in “sweeping and systematic fashion,” what were members of the Trump Campaign doing? They were busy establishing Russian links and contacts, eagerly anticipating profiting and benefiting from all that Russia love—and lying through their teeth about these links to the American people and investigators. …
Reading the Mueller Report Part II: Links Galore Read More »
The scope and scale of the Russian cyber attack on the U.S. was breath-taking and horrifying. From Special Counsel: “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” Special Counsel established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through two operations: A Russian entity, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), …
Reading the Mueller Report Part I: “A Sweeping and Systematic” Attack on America Read More »
K asks if we will see the full Mueller report. Yes, I do think we will see the full report. It may not happen as soon as people would like, but we will see it. There are too many legal means available for securing the report, and too many people know the contents. I wrote …
I’ve been getting lots of questions like this one: So I consulted Prof. Karen Stenner (formerly Princeton and Duke), this paper, and her work on the Authoritarian Dynamic. Many of the quotations are from a private conversation. She’s on Twitter. By MAGA I mean the part of the Fox-Trump-GOP who have what psychologists call an …
