It is not a witch hunt

Well, now we really know that the Robert Mueller investigation is not a “witch hunt.”  With these twelve (12) Russian diplomatic and military officials added to the “haul,” as much as an indictment can speak to us, a total of twenty-six (26) Russians are implicated in Vladimir Putin’s meddlings in our 2016 elections.  This should bring the curtain down on the “foreign” indictment act in Mr. Mueller’s investigation, as another rises in the trial of Paul Manafort.  Which makes this a good time to take an off-ramp and digest the impact of the Special Prosecutor’s efforts.

At present, Mueller’s team has focused on defining the crimes.  Broadly, we have two (2) core indictments detailing how Russians illegally used social media and more directly “hacking” efforts to try and influence the results in our 2016 elections.  There was a coordinated effort to steal Clinton campaign emails and strategies, lift voter’s private personal information from elector rolls, and even trial-attack our voting systems.  We can expect more of the same in 2018, with little evidence we have hardened our voting system to protect us from another such cyber attack.

There is little expectation that the individual Russians named and their companies will be prosecuted.  Hence, the most basic prosecutorial purpose of these indictments was to lay out the criminality as a predicate to bringing legal action against individual Americans.  In other words, there is more to come.

Unsurprisingly, a mere six (6) American citizens have been charged by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.  The prosecutors are moving methodically towards their end game.  Practically, as well ethically, they are prohibited from “trying the case” in the media.  Hence, while they are under attack by those seeking to undermine the results, they must toil in relative silence, letting their court filings and indictments speak for them. 

This does not mean, as Rudy Giulani bleats, there are no additional Americans to indict.  Far from it, as the latest indictment foreshadows.  There is at least one congressman who should be concerned about the future for having sought to use information stolen by the Russians.  We even know that Trump Campaign officials (presumably Roger Stone) were in contact with these Russian criminals.  This does not mean any American (not yet charged) committed a crime, although it should make them all feel very uncomfortable.

Of those Americans charged, only Paul Manafort, President Trump’s campaign chairman, has failed to plead guilty.  Mr. Manafort’s actions, as stated by the indictments against him, were pernicious and preceded the 2016 election cycle – there may or may not be more allegations to come against him as related to 2016.  Mr. Manafort sits in a Federal Detention Center awaiting his first trial.  The depth and breadth of the facts alleged in his indictments (as well as the fact that his lieutenant, Rick Gates, was charged and pleaded guilty) suggests his future is beyond bleak.

We do not know of, and there is no clear indication, what he knows  about Russian election meddling and the Trump Campaign.  We have suggestions that he sought to use his access as campaign chairman to curry favor with his Russian debt holders.  The changing of the Ukrainian plank in the Republican Platform also would seem to have his fingerprints on it.  Prosecutors would certainly have questions for him, should he ever offer to speak with them.

Really, though, the trials and tribulations of Mr. Manafort are less important than what is already known to the Special Prosecutor’s Office.  The indictment of the dozen Russian military agents revealed just how much evidence the FBI has gathered.  At some point, maybe we will learn what they know about American involvement.

The politics behind all of this, though, misses a bigger picture.  Lawyers and FBI agents, working together, have unearthed the details behind a cyber attack against this country.  Instead of with politicians or military, we are fighting a war against Russia with the law; our salvos are indictments, as opposed to rifles or bombs.  These are our soldiers and protectors of our democracy.

This is not the first time we have turned to the justice system to fight for our freedom.  We did so with both the first and second attacks on the World Trade Tower, we did so with the attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.  Whenever crimes are committed against us, we rely on the Justice Department’s FBI to investigate and Assistant U.S. Attorneys to prosecute the criminals.  They gather facts and package them into a convincing presentation to have wrongdoers held accountable.

Ordinary American citizens are a part of this process.  As grand jurors, they have to be willing to toil, thanklessly, for weeks and months, listening to evidence and working with prosecutors to investigate possible crimes.  In doing so, they are sworn to secrecy on penalty of prison.  Think about this.  Right now, citizens serving on multiple grand juries know all the gritty details latticing all of these indictments.  They also know what is not contained in the indictments, what is coming forth in the future.  Yet, despite all this knowledge, not a peep has been publicly leaked, except what has been authorized by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

This is what it means to be an American.  We trust to career bureacrats and ordinary citizens to be more concerned about keeping all of us safe than personal interest or political beliefs.  They trudge on with their responsibilities, even as they are being roasted by politicians and the media.  This is patriotism.  We should honor their efforts by letting them complete their jobs and share with us the fruits of their labor.  Lets wait and see what the next round of indictments tell us about the national wound we suffered; lets hope their efforts gird us for the next Russian attack in the 2018 midterms.

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami.  Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000.  E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to jim@rockefellerlawcenter.com.