Judge Shuts Down Russian Firm Trying To Challenge Mueller’s Indictments

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With the conclusion of the midterm elections, many eyes have again turned to the Russia investigation, which as led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is approaching an apparent end. He’s finally garnered at least some answers from President Donald Trump himself — and yet another ruling from a federal judge confirming that he can charge bad actors with conspiracy against the United States all on its own.

Concord Management and Consulting LLC had previously sought to have the charges Mueller brought against them thrown out because they argued that the special counsel had not proven a crime had actually been committed. Federal Judge Dabney Friedrich, though, disagreed, and threw out their arguments.

The ruling continues to reverberate thanks to past arguments from the Trump team that “collusion is not a crime.”

The president himself has ranted to that effect over and over.

On July 31, he complained:

‘Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!’

Screenshot-2018-11-24-at-12.53.26-PM Judge Shuts Down Russian Firm Trying To Challenge Mueller's Indictments Corruption Donald Trump Politics Russia Top Stories

So does it matter or does it not? The president is quite literally arguing that collusion with a foreign power should only be scrutinized if the Democrats do it. That’s barely a step away from his actual language, and for the record, there was no Democrat collusion with Russian government efforts to sway the 2016 elections.

His word salads aside, collusion is a crime, although yes, statutes that actually condemn criminal activity using the word “collusion” aren’t in place. What the word represents, though — conspiracy to defraud the United States — is a crime.

Still, the president and those closest to him have carried on with their claims otherwise. Presidential lawyer Rudy Giuliani has floated the assertion while on television.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. has insisted that the meeting he had with Kremlin lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya doesn’t matter on its own right because the Trump campaign allegedly didn’t garner the actual Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton they’d been seeking.

However — as Judge Friedrich confirmed, it does matter. Concord Management is one of the Russian companies that worked on Russian misinformation campaigns associated with the 2016 election season. They’ve been accused of conspiring to break laws demanding registration of foreign agents, campaign finance laws, and beyond. Although they’re based overseas, they’ve engaged with the special counsel in the American legal system via an American legal team — that for now is coming up short.

Mueller has successfully held four former Trump associates and counting legally liable for their behavior with similar fervor — and perhaps conscious of just how tenuous his defense that collusion and conspiracy aren’t crimes is, Trump Jr. himself has been reported to be fearing that he’s next.

Meanwhile, Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi has been reported to be in plea negotiations with the special counsel’s office.

Stone is another member of Trump’s inner circles who’s peddled in collusion and conspiracy; he maintained murky connections to Wikileaks, which Russia used to distribute the emails they stole from Democrats during the 2016 election season. He too has said he’s prepared to be indicted — although he didn’t admit wrongdoing and said it would be a political hit.

In other words, Judge Friedrich clearing the way for Mueller to bring charges of conspiracy could truly have massive ramifications in Trump World.

Featured Image via YouTube screenshot