UPDATE: Mueller indicted former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Deputy Rick Gates on 12 counts including fraud and money laundering from 2006 to 2015. None of the charges have any link to the 2016 campaign and were for their work as foreign lobbyists.
Donald Trump has always been the target of Robert Mueller’s Russia witch hunt.
But now the special counsel is taking his political hatchet job to the next level.
Mueller is preparing an indictment and he has Trump in his crosshairs.
CNN reported the first indictment in Mueller’s Russia investigation is expected to be handed down today:
“A federal grand jury in Washington on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment. The White House also had no comment, a senior administration official said Saturday morning.
Mueller was appointed in May to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Under the regulations governing special counsel investigations, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has oversight over the Russia investigation, would have been made aware of any charges before they were taken before the grand jury for approval, according to people familiar with the matter.
On Friday, top lawyers who are helping to lead the Mueller probe, including veteran prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, were seen entering the court room at the DC federal court where the grand jury meets to hear testimony in the Russia investigation.
Reporters present saw a flurry of activity at the grand jury room, but officials made no announcements.”
Pundits believe Mueller is preparing to charge a figure such as Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn or Carter Page in an effort to pressure them into flipping on Trump.
No evidence of collusion has been found and the anti-Trump forces are getting desperate.
Holding a prison sentence over the head of one of Trump’s associates head is a last chance, Hail Mary ploy to induce them to spill the beans on Russian collusion.
Trump has always maintained his innocence and continued to fire off tweets exposing the collusion story as a hoax.
It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017
…the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017
…”collusion,” which doesn’t exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R’s…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017
Critics believe Mueller is grasping at straws and will use an indictment on a charge unrelated to the initial Russia investigation to begin to move the witch hunt toward targeting Trump himself.
We will keep you updated on any new developments in this story.