It’s too early to say, as one account does, that the Wisconsin debacle prefigured the ongoing Robert Mueller investigation into Trump’s campaign, though there are certainly similarities between the attitudes of “The Resistance” in Washington and the Wisconsin establishment’s response to Walker. Writing in The Washington Post last week, Ed Rogers wrote that, though he’d supported Mueller in the past, Mueller needed to get a handle on the overwhelming partisan slant of his prosecutors or he’d be discredited.
It’s good advice. Mueller and his investigators should take care not to get wrapped up in partisan politics while conducting a criminal investigation. Because that seldom ends well.
December 13, 2017
What happened in Wisconsin's John Doe investigation — a forewarning to Robert Mueller?
I'm reading "Governmental accountability board? More like Wisconsin's Secret Police," by Glenn Reynolds, which ends:
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51 comments:
Put Shane Falk in jail..
Its a start
If Mueller had any integrity, he would fire his entire staff and then resign.
Rosenstein could then appoint a new guy and he could wrap up the pending case.
But this won’t happen.
Little late for that.
I'm more concerned about how people like DA J Chisholm are allowed to run roughshod over citizens he happens to disagree with.
Weird putting this in a future tense when they are already discredited. Maybe be wrote about it before we knew the FBI was literally in bed with Fusion GPS?
Or before we knew Stzork was sleeping with the woman who was making decisions about the investigation?
Like, did the author not know about these glaring compromises in the investigation? I don't know if it is even salvageable given how much is taibted.
There are a LOT of 'similarities.'
John Doe is a "legal means", as is a special prosecutor. Both are using questionable 'legal' theories/approaches to obtain their end, which happens to be political: taking down the emperor (so to speak.)
It's also "similar" that the Doe collected every scrap of correspondence from the enemies list, just as the FISA warrant allowed in the Fed travesty. Schmitz/Chisholm would have given their firstborns for NSA-level intel collection, of course, but had to settle for less.
WIsconsin was the template.
WIsconsin was the template.
America's proving grounds for secret servers and corrupt investigations of political opponents. Hillary didn't visit WI out of fear of people putting two and two together.
At some point people will resort to violence, that is one reason why maintaining the rule of law is so important. The hubris is breathtaking, nemesis will not be kind.
"Mueller and his investigators should take care not to get wrapped up in partisan politics while conducting a criminal investigation."
Ha! That train left the station a long time ago.
I wonder if Mueller and Strzok et al have set up and communicate via their "outside" gmail accounts yet?
Schmitz/Chisholm would have given their firstborns for NSA-level intel collection, of course, but had to settle for less.
Are you sure? I bet they got a great deal of satisfaction with the alternative, which was raiding the homes at gun point, ransacking the place, and leaving with whatever valuables they decided might be evidence. It all would have worked out if the victims had fallen for the laughable claim that they could tell no one. I'm sure they were laughing their asses off about those raids. And the thing is, despite all that Schmitz and Chisholm did, nothing will happen to them. I bet they are still laughing.
Strange that nothing will happen due to John Doe.
Would not RICO be applicable?
"Mueller needed to get a handle on the overwhelming partisan slant of his prosecutors or he’d be discredited."
=============
Mueller is far more interested in getting a handle on who finds out about the overwhelming partisan slant of his prosecutors and stonewalling efforts to reveal that fact.
Matthew Sablan said...
Weird putting this in a future tense when they are already discredited. Maybe be wrote about it before we knew the FBI was literally in bed with Fusion GPS?
Well, technically, it was the DOJ in bed with Fusion GPS, but since the DOJ oversees the FBI, we can let it slide.
"When it comes to the point of it affecting an election, the compelling interest rises to the level where the state can get around the constitutional right to free speech,” he testified."
Shane Falk at WI GAB 2008
I'm sure that Schmitz and Chisholm got off when the Stormtroopers smashed the doors; to them, it was like a porn movie.
But Nemesis--or karma--is a bitch. They will live to regret their actions here.
Busdriver
Great idea! Set up a private server or use fake names on gmail.
"Mueller needed to get a handle on the overwhelming partisan slant of his prosecutors or he’d be discredited."
Sure, John Doe ultimately failed. It was "discredited." But it terrorized GOPers for a long time. It almost worked. The thugs suffered fewer consequences than the targets. Rational progs will try again: the benefits of lawfare outweigh the costs, particularly since they wear the supposed "discredit" as a badge of honor.
Mueller wil "get a handle" on the slant just as much as he needs to to avoid embarrassment in court. Other than that, the slant is the point: for a partisan witch hunt, you need partisans.
Will there be any real consequences for the gestapo illegalities in Wisconsin? Can you just "lose" records with no legal response?
"It’s good advice. Mueller and his investigators should take care not to get wrapped up in partisan politics while conducting a criminal investigation. Because that seldom ends well."
Good advice, but too late. Unless they have a DeLorean with a flux capacitor.
No, nix that. This started out as partisan politics.
They are probably using untraceable coded HAM radio, like they did when communicating with Fusion GPS. FBI knows how to avoid oversight by Congress.
Train/Station. Horse/Barn Door. Ship/Sailed.
The prosecutors who cost Ted Stevens his Senate seat got a "letter of reprimand" placed in their file, which undoubtedly serves them still as a recommendation. But remember, the garden of democracy is a fragile thing!
Can you just "lose" records with no legal response?
Ask Hillary! Or Lois Lerner!
rehajm said...
Wisconsin was the template.
Why? My theory:
The feeling of specialness is dangerous. If you believe you have a right to something being deprived of it is a violation of your rights. Then the idea of violating others rights to keep it becomes justifiable.
Wisconsin leftwingers believe they have the right to control the states politics. Most of this is simply that they have for so long and they believe they are right, but many also point to the La Follette legacy. All of these reasons plus their dominance of the institutions plays into their expectation. Recall how this played out during the Walker protests with nominal adults engaging in ever more juvenile and extreme behavior. Left wingers were threatening others including liberals like Althouse under the belief that they deserved this particular place without opposition. As I recall people criticized her mere presence and suggested she should move because she didn't "belong".
This same entitlement exists in the left wing posters here, and it exists in left wingers nationally. The left wants to believe Hillary's entitlement which cost her the election was hers alone. It is not. The sense they governance should be theirs without interference or regard for the governed is discernible from flyover or deplorable comments, or enacting Obamacare against the will of the people, or by inventing Title IX witch hunts by bureaucratic fiat.
"The Resistance" plays directly into these feelings of specialness justifying ever more extreme action rather than responsible behavior. And thus in a moment the left should be focusing on becoming less arrogant and entitled they are actually becoming more. I strongly suspect this isn't going to end well for them.
The Wisconsin John Doe investigation got zero guilty pleas and no convictions.
The Mueller investigation is chalking up one guilty plea after another. Defendants, pleading guilty. Abandoning their claims of innocence while counseled by top-flight attorneys. Manafort hasn't pled yet. That, I fully expect, is just a matter of time.
So is there a difference? Uh, yeah.
And for all of the mindless assholes who comment on this blog and who accuse me of left-wing sympathies: I have been a commenter here dating back to the early days of the Wisconsin John Doe investigation being revealed. And I questioned/criticized it from the start.
"The prosecutors who cost Ted Stevens his Senate seat"
-- Also were sleeping with people they shouldn't have been and corrupting the investigation. Why can't the FBI and government investigators keep it professional?
Can you just "lose" records with no legal response?
Forget Hillary. Ask her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills. Three times now she's responded to subpeonas with "the dog ate my files/hard drive" excuse. Three times she's gotten away with it.
It's going to be a lot harder for the partisans inside DOJ/FBI. Their communications are archived. Of course, one thought that would be the case with Lois Lerner, eh?
"Can you just "lose" records with no legal response?"
-- You and I can't. But, we're not Special.
And thus in a moment the left should be focusing on becoming less arrogant and entitled they are actually becoming more. I strongly suspect this isn't going to end well for them.
Earth to chuck. The Flynn plea will probably be vacated because of FBI and prosecutor misbehavior.
Nobody cares about Manafort. The GOPe put him with Trump and as soon as Trump found out about Ukraine, he was gone.
Um. Chuck. IIRC didn't they force some fairly low-level staffer (Darlene Wink) to plead guilty in the early days of John Doe 1? I know there was some guy who got hit for campaign contributions, but that wasn't really part of the John Doe cases.
Amazing that the Bowe Berghdahl/Doug Jones wing of the Lifelong Republicans has polite muted "criticism" of the John Doe travesty, but cheerleads the ongoing Mueller farce.
Never saw that coming from Lifelong Cuck.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok wrote in a cryptic text message to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress.
“It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok wrote in the text, dated Aug. 15, 2016.
Andy is likely Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. <-- quotes at Hot Air quoting Daily Caller.
... Isn't that what Comey called "his memo to myself about my conversation with Trump?" Basically?
Sorry. This is stinking.
""Chuck said...
The Mueller investigation is chalking up one guilty plea after another. Defendants, pleading guilty. Abandoning their claims of innocence while counseled by top-flight attorneys. Manafort hasn't pled yet. That, I fully expect, is just a matter of time."
Seriously? Left and right? Hahahaha
None had anything to do with the Trump campaign.
There is an investigation by the DOJ inspector general into the investigation of Clinton. I fully expect it to be highly critical. I also fully expect to be in substantial agreement with its findings. I also fully expect to be in substantial agreement with Mueller's findings. Seems to me to be a waste of time obsessing over either at this stage.
Blogger Chuck said...
The Mueller investigation is chalking up one guilty plea after another.
Thank goodness for Mueller: Keeping America safe from process crimes!
Of course not all process crimes are equal. If you work for Trump, lying to the FBI gets you charged, but if you work for Hillary, well, anyone can make a mistake in their testimony y'know ... Server? What server? Never heard of any server .... oh, you mean THAT server. My bad.
Sebastian wrote:
"for a partisan witch hunt, you need partisans.
This is probably the unfortunate truth about Mueller.
McCabe cancelling his testimony today was interesting. I strongly suspect that he shows up next week with a personal lawyer.
"“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok wrote in a cryptic text message to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress."
First time I'm seeing this. Holy fuck.
But no worries. All is good because "The Mueller investigation is chalking up one guilty plea after another. Defendants, pleading guilty. Abandoning their claims of innocence while counseled by top-flight attorneys. Manafort hasn't pled yet. That, I fully expect, is just a matter of time."
"The Wisconsin John Doe investigation got zero guilty pleas and no convictions."
Which one(s),JD one, two, three, maybe a previously unknown fourth? Well that is false anyway!!
Parallels of disparate treatment
Blogger Yancey Ward said..."McCabe cancelling his testimony today was interesting. I strongly suspect that he shows up next week with a personal lawyer."
He's going to need one. This is starting to sound like a conspiracy.
OriginalMike,
I think maybe the thing that caused McCabe to cancel was that exact text from Strzok to Page. He realized he was going to be asked if he was "Andy". Now, he could plausibly not remember such a meeting, but if he really is "Andy", the dates on the texts and any e-mails connected to it might well more or less prove that such a meeting took place in McCabe's office. It then becomes a matter of trying to determine what this "plan" was really about, and who else attended. To answer such questions is a conundrum, even if the meeting really was completely innocent in nature. For that McCabe might well want to consult an attorney for whom McCabe is the client and not the government. I think there is about a 50% chance McCabe doesnt' appear next week either.
That $700k from McAuliffe to McCabe's wife has always looked like a bribe. More so now.
I am astounded that so many FBI agents seem to regularly make political donations. I spent the first 5 years of my legal career prosecuting corrupt politicians, and I categorically refused to participate in any political activity, support any candidates or ballot initiatives, contribute any funds to a political organization. The only remotely political thing I did was attend Republic State Central Committee meetings with my grandmother, who was a member of the committee.
Making political contributions doesn't violate the letter of the Hatch Act, but what agent in his or her right mind would think being publicly associated with one political party or candidate is a good idea to improve the appearance of the impartial administration of justice? I fear that the FBI has some very deep rot at its heart, and needs a profound culture change.
"I fear that the FBI has some very deep rot at its heart, and needs a profound culture change."
At least we got a wince from Rosenstein when Strzok's text callng Trump's family "douchebags" was read out.
But all's good with this investigation for LLRs.
"[Strzok] emailed Clinton on July 2, 2016 — three days before then-FBI Director James Comey cleared her of criminal wrongdoing."
That's an email I want to see.
"Accidental Leftist" Chuck: "And for all of the mindless assholes who comment on this blog and who accuse me of left-wing sympathies:"
Your day to day operational alignment with the dems/left is inescapably obvious.
Your motivations for said alignment is irrelevant.
...feelings of specialness justifying ever more extreme action rather than responsible behavior.
Specialness is usually trumped by an angry mob with ropes and nearby trees.
I am astounded that so many FBI agents seem to regularly make political donations.
Who knew they made so much money?!
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