Does One of Mueller's Prosecutors Have a Personal Animus Against Paul Manafort?
Andrew Weissmann
Iâve made no secret of my belief that Robert Mueller has created more of a hit squad than an investigatory team. Iâve never had it explained to my satisfaction why  in a nation awash in lawyers  that Mueller has assembled a team which consists  in its majority  Democrat donors and partisans. Primary among those is Muellerâs deputy   a guy named Andrew Weissman .  Weissman  is a civil service employee in the upper ranks of Department of Justice.  He  was at Hillary Clintonâs âvictoryâ party on the night of November 8  2016.  He  praised Sally Yates for refusing to do her duty under the Constitution and defend President Trumpâs travel executive order in court.
 Weissman  also has a history of being willing to prosecute people on scant evidence and bullsh** legal theories  letting them rot in jail as their appeals run their course  then seeing the freed but ruined professionally and financially.
A senior Justice Department prosecutor in Robert Muellerâs Special Counsel office held a meeting with Associated Press journalists last spring to discuss an investigation into Paul Manafortâs financial record  a day before the wire service published a major expose disclosing alleged money laundering made by the former and now embattled Trump campaign chairman.  Federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann  now a senior attorney in the special counselâs office   met with AP journalists on April 11 after reporters informed  him  of their own investigation into Manafortâs dealings with Ukrainian officials. The reporters had reached out to Weissman on a different story earlier in the year and it was during that conversation  that the AP team told  Weissmann  of their investigation into Manafort  stated the sources. The AP published the explosive expose on April 12  a day after their meeting with  Weissmann . According to sources familiar with the meeting  the reporters had promised to share documents and other information gleaned from the own investigation with the Justice Department.
Most of this is utter bullsh** as Mueller wasnât appointed until May 17. BUT AP reporters donât meet with the head of Justiceâs Criminal Fraud Section for funsies. And a senior official doesnât take a meeting on the day before a major story runs for sh**s and grins. It doesnât work that way. AP obviously had information they wanted corroborated by Justice.  Weissman  didnât have to meet with them but  he  did. Now you have to ask yourself  why? According to the stories there was no open investigation into Manafort. So what could  he  possibly contribute that a press officer couldnât. Perhaps the AP  animated by civic spirit  decided to just give  Weissman  all  their  source material. Perhaps  they  flew there on broomsticks  too. Iâd rate both options just as likely.
Then you have to ask why  Weissman  made the jump to Muellerâs team? Did  him  having APâs source material represent  his  buy-in to get on a high profile investigation that could offer  him  the satisfaction of a bit of payback after sitting in the âvictory celebration â shell-shocked and dumbfounded  as the election was called for Donald Trump?
And you saw  Weissman  try to get Manafortâs bond revoked for editing an op-ed.
Weissmanâs history of legalized thuggery  his obvious and egregious partisanship  his collaboration with AP on their investigative work on Paul Manafort  and the abusive way  Weissman  has gone after Manafort all reeks of a personal animus. One hopes that eventually there will be enough heat on Rosenstein that heâll remember who the boss is and impose some type of discipline on Mueller posse. But Iâm not counting on it.
Iâve made no secret of my belief that Robert Mueller has created more of a hit squad than an investigatory team. Iâve never had it explained to my satisfaction why  in a nation awash in lawyers  that Mueller has assembled a team which consists  in its majority  Democrat donors and partisans. Primary among those is Muellerâs deputy   a guy named Andrew Weissman .  Weissman  is a civil service employee in the upper ranks of Department of Justice.  He  was at Hillary Clintonâs âvictoryâ party on the night of November 8  2016.  He  praised Sally Yates for refusing to do her duty under the Constitution and defend President Trumpâs travel executive order in court.
 Weissman  also has a history of being willing to prosecute people on scant evidence and bullsh** legal theories  letting them rot in jail as their appeals run their course  then seeing the freed but ruined professionally and financially.
A senior Justice Department prosecutor in Robert Muellerâs Special Counsel office held a meeting with Associated Press journalists last spring to discuss an investigation into Paul Manafortâs financial record  a day before the wire service published a major expose disclosing alleged money laundering made by the former and now embattled Trump campaign chairman.   [TGT] met with AP journalists on April 11 after reporters informed   [TGT]   of their own investigation into Manafortâs dealings with Ukrainian officials. The reporters had reached out to Weissman on a different story earlier in the year and it was during that conversation  that the AP team told  Weissmann  of their investigation into Manafort  stated the sources. The AP published the explosive expose on April 12  a day after their meeting with  Weissmann . According to sources familiar with the meeting  the reporters had promised to share documents and other information gleaned from the own investigation with the Justice Department.
Most of this is utter bullsh** as Mueller wasnât appointed until May 17. BUT AP reporters donât meet with the head of Justiceâs Criminal Fraud Section for funsies. And a senior official doesnât take a meeting on the day before a major story runs for sh**s and grins. It doesnât work that way. AP obviously had information they wanted corroborated by Justice.  Weissman  didnât have to meet with them but  he  did. Now you have to ask yourself  why? According to the stories there was no open investigation into Manafort. So what could  he  possibly contribute that a press officer couldnât. Perhaps the AP  animated by civic spirit  decided to just give  Weissman  all  their  source material. Perhaps  they  flew there on broomsticks  too. Iâd rate both options just as likely.
Then you have to ask why  Weissman  made the jump to Muellerâs team? Did  him  having APâs source material represent  his  buy-in to get on a high profile investigation that could offer  him  the satisfaction of a bit of payback after sitting in the âvictory celebration â shell-shocked and dumbfounded  as the election was called for Donald Trump?
And you saw  Weissman  try to get Manafortâs bond revoked for editing an op-ed.
Weissmanâs history of legalized thuggery  his obvious and egregious partisanship  his collaboration with AP on their investigative work on Paul Manafort  and the abusive way  Weissman  has gone after Manafort all reeks of a personal animus. One hopes that eventually there will be enough heat on Rosenstein that heâll remember who the boss is and impose some type of discipline on Mueller posse. But Iâm not counting on it.