quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
and now all eyes turn to the SDNY.

Doesn't that office have to go through the DOJ and Barr?

I'm not a lawyer... but as I've understood it, the NY investigations involve business activity within NY, outside the jurisdiction of the feds. This may be relying on standards, ethics and precedent more than the letter of the law, though. Hopefully a legal eagle will chime in and set us both straight.

I *did* win. What's my prize?

Next up: will the rest of my predictions come true?

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
and now all eyes turn to the SDNY.

Doesn't that office have to go through the DOJ and Barr?

I'm not a lawyer... but as I've understood it, the NY investigations involve business activity within NY, outside the jurisdiction of the feds. This may be relying on standards, ethics and precedent more than the letter of the law, though. Hopefully a legal eagle will chime in and set us both straight.

I think there's some muddling going on here between the New York Attorney General and the Southern District of New York.

The SDNY is a part of the Department of Justice. Historically, the SDNY operates independently, but it is part of the DoJ, and the President can fire the US Attorney for the Southern District (as Preet Bharara unfortunately knows).

The New York Attorney General is NOT part of the Department of Justice. The AG is the highest legal officer in the State of New York, and is completely unbeholden to the DoJ.

There is some weirdness in New York law (I don't know the details) that can prohibit a New York state prosecution of someone who has already been subject to prosecution, or perhaps pardoned, on the federal level. I know that there's been some discussion in the New York legislature about clarifying that.

Mueller's report notes that his office gave criminal referrals in 14 (I think) instances to other agencies. Two are public already ... one involves Michael Cohen, and was to the SDNY. The others aren't public yet.

So, Nina, yes, there are NY investigations outside the jurisdiction of the feds. But they are being run by the New York Attorney General, not the SDNY.

And there are also probably undisclosed investigations being run by the SDNY, either on referral from Mueller or otherwise.

Does anyone think anything will come of this?

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Does anyone think anything will come of this?

Did you think Michael Flynn or Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort or Rick Gates would ever be indicted?

In this particular instance, there's already evidence that your cynicism has been unwarranted.

Maybe nothing else will happen, but we do know there are twelve criminal referrals from Mueller that haven't been publicly disclosed yet.

And the criminal referral of Cohen didn't get ignored.

Mueller did an objective analysis of the facts. How people interpret that analysis will vary widely.

Will the report make a difference? I don't know. But I think it was important that it be done.

I guess I'm not surprised, but definitely disappointed. People will read what they want into the report. Trump and his supporters will see total exoneration. The other side will see lots of slimy behavior that rose to, but didn't quite cross the line to criminal behavior with this investigator's uber-careful approach.

I think it would be interesting to subpoena Mueller and have him testify in front of the grand jury, to give a bit of a TV spectacle to Mueller's recitation of the facts. We old geezers remember that there wasn't much interest in Watergate outside of DC until the hearings were televised.

I also think it would be a huge mistake for the Dems to push for impeachment. First, it won't happen given the nature of this inert Congress. Second, it will steal time from the 2020 campaign and other important coverage (like lack of movement on health care and border security). Finally, I do believe that the path to victory for the Dems is to stop talking about how horrible Trump is, and start talking about how they can address health care, and start signaling some warning shots about recession (which is predicted by many, many analysts). A bit about closing GE plants in Youngstown, OH, wouldn't hurt, either.

As for the NY attorney general, let him continue, but make plans as if there's nothing happening there.

My 2c.

Nina - I think you're right on the money.

Yesterday, Individual 1 was having a good day and speaking highly of the Mueller report.

Today he says it's got a lot of bullsh!t in it.

Methinks someone read him some of the stuff McGahn and others said to the special counsel.