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ROBERT MUELLER DITCHES "COLLUSION" FOR A NEW STRATEGY
There is a new C-word being floated around the Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation.
It's not collusion…it is conspiracy.
There is one charge that may be becoming a focus in the probe: conspiracy to defraud
the United States.
It has risen in several of the Mueller team's major cases.
The allegation has appeared in filings against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.
And it is showing up in indictments of the Russian nationals accused of hacking into
the Democratic Party organizations and election infrastructure earlier this month.
These new charges are significant because they are building blocks.
When prosecutors allege a conspiracy, they can add more individuals at a later date.
The C-word that Trump and his team have been defending against is collusion with the Russians.
And they have indicated that if there was any collusion, Trump was not aware of it.
Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has declared: "I don't even know if that's a crime,
colluding about Russians," Giuliani told CNN this week.
Trump echoed that in a tweet: "Collusion is not a crime."
According to federal prosecutor, Mimi Rocah, this is technically correct but beside the
point.
"To say there's no crime of collusion means nothing," said Rocah.
"That label isn't in the criminal statutes.
But that doesn't matter because the conduct that underlies collusion can be, under certain
circumstances, conspiracy to defraud the U.S."
The statute, Title 18 U.S. Code 371, makes it a crime for two or more people to "conspire
either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or
any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."
The maximum penalty for this offense is five years.
The mandate Mueller was given by Deputy U.S. Attorney General was to investigate "any
links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with
the campaign of President Donald Trump," and matters arising from that.
With conspiracy allegations now focused on more than two dozen Russian nationals relating
to the 2016 elections, the U.S. could add Americans if there's evidence that they
helped or encouraged them, said Rocah.
"If there's any corruption of the electoral system and the way it's supposed to work,
that conduct can be put into this conspiracy.
Campaign finance violations can be put in this framework, as well as conspiracy to obstruct
the function of the Federal Election Commission," said Rocah.
Mueller, she said, has "put a framework down to which you can add other people."
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