Midterms over, Mueller faces key decisions in Russia probe
WASHINGTON — For more than seven weeks, special counsel Robert Mueller has been silent.
In the run-up to Election Day, there were no indictments or public pronouncements by the special counsel’s office, in keeping with Justice Department guidelines that prosecutors should avoid taking steps that could be perceived as intending to influence the outcome of the vote.
With the midterm elections over, Mueller faces key decision points in his 18-month-old investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign — a probe that has already led to charges against 32 people, including 26 Russians. Four aides to President Trump have pleaded guilty to various charges, most recently former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in September.
Among the most pressing matters now before the special counsel: a probe into longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone’s activities and ongoing negotiations with Trump’s legal team over a request to interview him.
For months, Mueller has been seeking to question Trump as part of his investigation, which is also exam- ining whether the president sought to obstruct the probe.
Now that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been fired, the shake-up could spell the end of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s over- sight of the investigation.
Rosen stein appointed Mueller last May and has since supervised his work because Sessions, a key Trump surrogate in 2016, recused himself from deal- ing with matters involving the campaign.
At a post-election news conference Wednesday, Trump maintained he has an absolute right to fire anyone — including Mueller — and end the investigation, but said that he would prefer to “let it go on.”
“I could fire everybody right now, but I don’t want to stop it because politi- cally, I don’t like stopping it,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace. It should never have been started, because there is no crime.”
Jacob Frenkel, a former st ate and federal prose- cutor who is now in private practice at Dickinson Wright, noted that by keep- ing a low profile, Mueller avoided the widespread crit- icism that then-FBI Director James Comey faced when he made announcements about an investigation into Demo- cratic nominee Hillary Clin- ton’s email practices in the final weeks of the 2016 race.
But Frenkel said he did not expect Mueller’s silence to continue for long.
“For me, the question is, ‘How many indictments and who?’” Frenkel said. “It is not an ‘if.’”
A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.
Mueller’s prosecutors have already laid out detailed allegations of how Russia sought to manipulate Americans through social media, break into state voting systems and hack the email accounts of Democratic committees and party leaders.
But the special counsel’s team has not indicated publicly it has drawn any conclusions about whether Trump associates conspired with
the Russians or whether the president obstructed justice.
At some point, the special counsel is expected to issue a confidential report to Rosenstein on his conclusions. Those findings — which could be shared with Congress — are eagerly awaited by Democrats, who on Tuesday regained control of the House.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said that Mueller’s conclusions will affect whether the party pursues impeachment proceedings against Trump.