Special counsel Robert Mueller is finding he bit off more than he could chew.
Mueller filed a splashy indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three companies for election meddling as a part of his crusade to bring down the President.
But now Mueller’s case against Trump is on the ropes after this courtroom shocker.
The dirty little secret about Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three internet marketing companies for election interference was that the special counsel never expected there would be a trial.
Since the Russians were in their home country, they would never step foot in court and Mueller would never have to present his evidence.
That all changed when lawyers representing Concord Management and Consulting, LLC arrived in court and entered a plea of not guilty.
This caught Mueller flatfooted, and a judge smacked down his attempt to delay the hearing.
The second surprise came when the lawyers pointed out that one of the companies Mueller indicted – Concord Catering – didn’t even exist during the time period Mueller claimed in the indictment.
The Daily Wire reports:
“This week, one of the Russian companies accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of funding a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was revealed in court to not have existed during the time period alleged by Mueller’s team of prosecutors, according to a lawyer representing the defendant.
U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey asked Eric Dubelier, one of two lawyers representing the accused Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, if he was representing a third company listed in Mueller’s indictment.
“What about Concord Catering?” Harvey asked Dubelier. “The government makes an allegation that there’s some association. I don’t mean for you to – do you represent them, or not, today? And are we arraigning them as well?”
“We’re not,” Dubelier responded. “And the reason for that, Your Honor, is I think we’re dealing with a situation of the government having indicted the proverbial ham sandwich.”
“That company didn’t exist as a legal entity during the time period alleged by the government,” Dubelier continued. “If at some later time they show me that it did exist, we would probably represent them. But for purposes of today, no, we do not.”
The term “indict a ham sandwich” is believed to have originated from a 1985 report in the New York Daily News when New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler told the news publication that government prosecutors have so much influence over grand juries that they could get them to “indict a ham sandwich.”
This embarrassing slip up for Mueller is the latest setback in his case against the President.
Now Mueller’s entire theory of election meddling will be put on trial.
And as the indictment of a fictional company showed, Mueller’s indictment was just a PR stunt designed to feed the press narrative that the special counsel was closing in on the President.
Mueller is going to be forced to show his hand.
The special counsel office will be forced to turn over evidence as part of this discovery.
Flashy indictments have a way of collapsing under the scrutiny of trial, so it’s put up or shut up time now that the prosecutor is outside the friendly confines of the grand jury.
And this could lead to an embarrassing defeat for Mueller that could derail his entire case.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this story.
