Speculation swirled Sunday awaiting the
announcement of possible charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s
investigation into possible collusion between Russia and members of the
Trump presidential campaign, as his tactics have been called into
question.
The charges being filed by a grand jury was reported first by CNN and the Wall Street Journal,
which said anyone charged will be taken into custody Monday. However,
the charges have been sealed by a federal judge. So whoever is charged
and whether the charges are criminal remains unclear.
The possible charges come as Mueller's tactics have been called into question.
During a raid by the FBI in July of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's Virginia home,
a source close to the investigation told Fox News at the time the scope of the search was "heavy-handed, designed to intimidate."
Andrew Weissmann, the prosecutor tapped by Mueller to help lead the investigation,
has also received criticism.
Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor recently wrote about
Weissman in a piece titled,
“Judging by Mueller's staffing choices, he
may not be very interested in justice.”
Powell accused Weissmann, once the director of the
Enron Task Force, of “prosecutorial overreach” in past cases and said it
could signal what’s to come for President Trump and his associates in
the Russia probe.
“What was supposed to have been a search for Russia’s
cyberspace intrusions into our electoral politics has morphed into a
malevolent mission targeting friends, family and colleagues of the
president,” Powell wrote in The Hill. “The Mueller investigation has
become an all-out assault to find crimes to pin on them — and it won’t
matter if there are no crimes to be found. This team can make some.”
Powell cited several cases where Weissmann won convictions that were later overturned.
During a Saturday appearance on Fox News, former
Department of Justice official Robert Driscoll told anchor Leland
Vittert it’s possible the indictment might not even be directly tied to
Russian collusion.
“Think back to the Clinton years,” Driscoll said. “The
Whitewater investigation was about an Arkansas land deal. And it ended
up being about something else completely.”
Driscoll added, “Robert Mueller is free to look at
taxes, is free to look at lobbying filings, foreign agent filings.
Things like that could all be involved that wouldn’t necessarily touch
on the issue of Russia collusion that everyone seems focused on
politically.”
Speculation has focused on former Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael
Flynn as likely targets.
Manafort has been the subject of a longstanding
investigation into his dealings in the Ukraine several years ago -- for
which he did not file as a foreign agent until June 2017.
Federal agents, reportedly in search of evidence
related to the Russia investigation, this summer raided his northern
Virginia home. He also was reportedly wiretapped by investigators before
and after the 2016 presidential election.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was a Trump
surrogate during the campaign and briefly served as national security
adviser before being fired for failing to fully disclose his
conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then-Russian ambassador to the United
States.
The FBI also secured approval from a federal court to monitor the communications of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
On Saturday, Page released a statement to Fox News in
response to questions about whether he or his lawyers have been notified
about any charges.
Page said in the statement that he has worked with the
executive branch and Congress since being contacted in March. But he
also suggested that revelations about the Democratic Party having helped
finance a dossier to smear Trump has tainted any Russia probe.
“In terms of ‘charges', I can’t even imagine what might
even be considered now that the false evidence from the
politically-motivated, big-money-financed Dodgy Dossier that started
this extrajudicial disaster has instead been so thoroughly exposed as a
complete sham,” Carter wrote in the statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported at least one person could be taken into custody as early as Monday.
Richard Hibey, an attorney for Manafort, told Fox News
on Friday that neither he nor any of his colleagues representing
Manafort had been informed of any indictment of their client.
Manafort has been the subject of a longstanding
investigation into his dealings in the Ukraine several years ago – for
which he did not file as a foreign agent until June 2017. In addition to
his home being raided, Manafort was reportedly wiretapped by
investigators before and after the 2016 presidential election.
A retired Army lieutenant general, Flynn served as a
Trump surrogate during the campaign and briefly served as national
security adviser before being fired over his conversations with Sergey
Kislyak, who was Russia's ambassador to the United States.
Mueller has reportedly probed whether
Flynn was involved in a private effort to get former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails from Russian hackers.
NBC reported Saturday that Mueller will make public an indictment on Monday.
The Justice Department’s special counsel’s office
declined to comment on the reports of filed charges. There was no
immediate comment from the White House.
Trump has denied allegations that his campaign colluded
with Russians and condemned investigations into the matter as “a witch
hunt”.