Russian indictment may undo Mueller

When Bobby Mueller indicted a bunch of Russians in his year-old witch hunt, it was all for show. After all, Russia would have to extradite the suspects, which it would never do. So Mueller got a headline out of the deal and won a news cycle.

He got the bill for that news cycle today. It may cost him everything.

"Attorneys for an alleged component of Russian trolling efforts during the 2016 presidential election are demanding that special counsel Robert Mueller be forced to reveal the grand jury instructions used in count one of the government’s indictment against Concord Management and Consulting LLC," Law and Crime reported.

Mueller must be gobsmacked. He never expected those Russian indictments to go to trial. But the defendants are hellbent on doing that, which means he will have to prosecute this sham indictment.

Mother Jones reported, "Eric A. Dubelier and Katherine Seikaly of Washington’s Reed Smith LLP law firm claim that Mueller has accused Concord, their client, of engaging 'in the make-believe crime of conspiring to interfere in a United States election,' complaining that the charges 'have a strong odor of hypocrisy.

"A footnote cites a December 2016 interview NPR conducted with Dov Levin, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, who found that the US interfered in foreign elections more than 80 times between 1946 and 2000. The footnote also cited an ABC News piece discussing a CIA acknowledgement of interfering in Chilean elections in the 1970s, and a 2013 CNN piece discussing CIA involvement in a coup in Iran in 1953."

Oh let us get more recent. Obama worked against the Brexit vote and the re-election of Netanyahu in Israel.

Law and Crime cited the statute that may allow this disclosure of grand jury secrets, "The court may authorize disclosure — at a time, in a manner, and subject to any other conditions that it directs — of a grand-jury matter…at the request of a defendant who shows that a ground may exist to dismiss the indictment because of a matter that occurred before the grand jury."

Those secrets will become public, if the judge allows this.

And why not?

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, right?

(Sings) Let the sunshine in. Let the sunshine in. The Sun Shine In!

(Stops)

Meanwhile, Paul Manafort wants the judge to hold a hearing on Mueller's multiple leaks to the press.

I don't know much about federal judges, but I believe they do not like prosecutors poisoning the jury pool with leaks.