What will Mueller do next? Any speculation?

[shraby]

[greymattermom]

1. Jared

He keeps amending his government documents. That reminds me of Flynn.

[Kablooie]

2. With Rump's being silent for a couple of days and then today's futile "WITCH HUNT" tweet...

Indicates to me that he's very nervous and is expecting something really big to drop and doesn't know how to defend himself from it.

That could be Manafort flipping.

On MSNBC someone predicted that if Manafort flips Trump would step down within a couple of weeks.
Whether that's true or not it seems that Manafort is the really big fish that Mueller's been trying to catch for a long time.

[SoCalMusicLover]

4. Wishfull Thinking On Their Part

Whatever analyst said that Drumpf is going to step down shortly after an announcement that Manafort is pleading guilty and assisting Mueller's investigation, is being a bit optimistic. Drumpf and those in Congress enabling him, are not going to suddenly back down sadly.

[Juliusseizure]

8. What's the prediction based on?

These predictions are worthless unless they know what Manafort would reveal, which they don't.

This is where these pundits cross the line between accurate prediction based on legal knowledge to pure speculation based on wanting to stay in the media spotlight.

[imanamerican63]

3. Hard telling who he needs to flip next?

I bet is on Jared or DJT Jr?

[Takket]

20. there will be no flipping the criminal family. mueller will ensure they spend life in prison

[imanamerican63]

23. Yeah, maybe, but there is always that chance he could pit their family against each other?

[Juliusseizure]

5. What evidence does he have?

Rhetorical question. We don't know what evidence he has, so we can just talk about general strategies.

I'm pretty sure he wants to flip Paul Manafort. He went after him very early on and most aggressively. Supposedly Trump said Manafort could do him in. He's piling on new charges in different courts while trying to seize assets (I think) so he can't afford lawyers.

That's not to say he needs Manafort to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. But I think he wants to prove these crimes beyond all doubt, not just reasonable doubt. That's the goal of every prosecutor.

I'm pretty sure he's reluctant to go after Trump family unless he absolutely needs to for political and strategy reasons.

[NCTraveler]

6. I don't expect much more at this point outside of him releasing his report to congress.

It will outline how deep Russia was in our elections. Showing it was clearly more than social media. He will not make the connection directly to Trump. He is finishing up his interviews now.

If he currently has the goods on Trump he would have the ethical responsibility to inform congress almost immediately. This is a situation where knowledge, without action, would equate to a dereliction of duty. That isn't Muellers thing.

[Juliusseizure]

9. You must be on Mueller's legal team then

Because only someone on his legal team would have any credibility in making that statement.

[NCTraveler]

14. It's called speculation on a political discussion board.

Your strange comment here could be applied to reply after reply.

Including a post you replied "Bada bing bada boom" to.

[Juliusseizure]

15. Its speculation inconsistent with facts

Speculation inconsistent with facts isn't worth much.

There's never been a probe by special counsel that's ended sooner than 2 years as far as I know, and this one appears to be by far the most complicated and wide-ranging, involving a foreign government
and possibly years worth of all kinds of criminal activities.

I will admit Mueller seems to be going very fast, but he won't stop until he's attempted to get slam dunk evidence on numerous serious criminal charges against the main actors as authorized by his appointment and as required by his ethical obligations (which I think he takes seriously, strangely enough).

Does Mueller seem like a half-assed prosecutor who just closes shop after a set number of interviews? That's basically what you're saying.

Also, the speculation that that he won't find a connection to Trump is inconsistent with Mueller's prosecutorial intent and what we know.

Maybe you were referring to just the "collusion" issue, which is still inconsistent with facts, but there's enough in the public record right now to recommend a charge of abuse of power and obstruction.

Trump said don't look into my financial affairs. Is that not a screaming red flag, in addition to public record evidence, that he's engaged in criminal money laundering with Russian oligarchs, etc?

And we know Mueller subpoenaed deutsche bank records - the conduit for Russian money laundering - and has a bunch of lawyers with expertise in money laundering. I don't know how you look at that and conclude its a nothing burger.

[NCTraveler]

16. My speculation is perfectly consistent with the facts that are known.

And you did not refute that in your post.

"Also, the speculation that that he won't find a connection to Trump is inconsistent with Mueller's prosecutorial intent and what we know."

What is his "prosecutorial intent"? Why would it matter in any way with respect to the outcome? He can't just make things up.

"I don't know how you look at that and conclude its a nothing burger."

I never said "nothing burger". I never said his investigation would be a "nothing burger". You literally just made that up.

Only those on the right are trying to lay the ground work that if it isn't directly Trump then it is a "nothing burger".

[Juliusseizure]

21. What known facts justify anything you said?

Mueller's prosecutorial intent is to find what,why,when,how, and who is behind Trump campaign criminal activity, and criminal activities discovered in the course of that investigation, with his goal of getting the leader who directed, authorized, most benefited from all of it, and is thus the greatest risk to public safety, which would be Trump.

If you disagree, I don't know why.

[NCTraveler]

24. You are wrong about intent.

It’s a bit shocking you can state something so inaccurate at this point.

[Juliusseizure]

27. Trump is a target-Not sorry that offends you

Is this DU or a CPAC forum?

[former9thward]

17. You don't have any "facts" either.

I guess you are the only one allowed to speculate in a thread which called for speculation.

[Juliusseizure]

18. Except I just referred to facts

There are lots of facts that serve as credible evidence already in the public record to demonstrate obstruction, abuse of power, and money laundering.

Do a quick search of DU discussions.

Obstruction - you just need to follow the news. Comey firing. Requests of every head of major intelligence agencies for loyalty pledges. Lester Holt interview "fired him for Russia thing". Meeting with Russians and statements made to Russians day after firing about being relieved Russia investigation pressure was off. He intended to fire Mueller. He's desperately searching for reasons to fire Rosenstein, with help from horsehit memos brought by Nunes. Etc etc etc

There's plenty of evidence for collusion-not on the public record, but see the article. I happen to trust Adam Schiff.

If you dispute that, I wonder why(?) since this is DU, but ok.

Schiff is referring to the "Trump campaign", because he can't say collusion with the president, but its Trump's campaign, with his own appointed advisors, all mysteriously having almost nothing in common except for being Republican and having contacts, pre-existing relationships with, financial dealings with, and collectively hundreds of contacts with, Russia and Russian oligarchs.

Of course anyone can speculate, but I can and will opine if I think its inaccurate because that just misleads people and makes them less informed.

I think we have an abundance of uninformed people already.


[link:https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/336786002|

[NCTraveler]

25. Because the truth matters and you dont seem to be interested in it.

“If you dispute that, I wonder why(?) since this is DU, but ok.”

You have not factually backed your speculation as you claim. Quite the opposite.

[Juliusseizure]

28. Troll on

If facts about Trump's obstruction of justice just trigger you into knee-jerk conclusory opposition, troll on.

[NightWatcher]

7. There are at least three areas of investigation: DNC hack, money laundering, and Obstruction

First he is proving the crimes have happened.

Then he'll show who hacked the DNC, voter roles, and possibly the vote numbers. It's fine if they are Russians and cannot be extradited to the US. Just prove they more than likely did it.

Then he'll show, using Manafort, that the Russians laundered billions through trump and his properties and that the election meddling was the quid pro quo for the years of laundering.

Then he'll cap it off with the ever so easy to prove Obstruction by the entire trump administration.

The crime happened. The Russians committed it. trump worked for Russia. His Obstruction links him to the huge conspiracy to launder and attack our election.

The Obstruction proves Conspiracy to the Crimes he's already laying out. It's Mobster Prosecution 101.

[Juliusseizure]

11. Bada bing bada boom

That's a good John Grisham plot summary and I hope you write that book and make millions.

But the facts, the law and the political reality of the proof he needs to show to get a GOP senate to convict are more complicated.

[NightWatcher]

13. I think there are a few "gotchas" that might convince the repukes to remove.

Those might possibly be:

Remember when the Russians hacked RNC Servers and your personal emails and are holding that above you? trump was in on that.

Or Mueller could list Rohrabacher, Ryan, McTurtle, and a few others as Unindicted Coconspirators and threaten to put their involvement. They might want the whole matter to go away quietly.

Or Mueller could show some horrendous proof of the vote totals being screwed with and treat it like an act of war and try to guilt the repukes.

Or Mueller will hand off a shit ton of proof of horrible crimes to an AG of a state like New York against trump so that the state would need him removed immediately in order to prosecute and try him for screwing with our election and actual vote totals. (This is the one that I think might actually happen.)

[meow2u3]

10. Rick Gates singing like a canary?

Word is that Gates has the goods on Donnie McRussia. RICO anyone?

[NewJeffCT]

12. My guess

with the Gates charges being withdrawn, he likely has something big on Manafort (and maybe others) and Mueller is putting additional pressure on Manafort to cooperate.

Either, we find out soon (by the end of March) that Manafort is working on a plea deal with Mueller to cooperate or else Trump will pardon Manafort and all Hell may break loose.

[mucifer]

19. My fantasy is that it doesn't really matter if Manafort flips because Gates is giving Mueller

all the info and that Mueller just wants Manafort to flip just to make his case stronger.

A girl can dream.

[Takket]

22. Manafort is the endgame.

once he flips, and he will, drumpf is finished. Manafort and Mueller are basically just haggling over the "cost" of Manafort's cooperation at this point, and I'm sure Manafort wants protection to ensure he doesn't get a plutonium souffle courtesy of Putin.

I think mueller movers on drumpf in the next month or two

[no_hypocrisy]

26. Everyone gets plea deals until it's time for Trump.

Trump is the end game.

Manafort going to prison is icing on the cake.

[maryellen99]

29. Any chance Manafort goes into Witness protection when and if he flips nt