In a portentious legal move, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington, D.C. to support his criminal investigation of collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice in connection with it. The grand jury has apparently been active for a few weeks. The action moves the investigation into a new, more critical phase in which grand jurors will be reviewing evidence and testimony regarding the investigation by Mueller and his team of prosecutors and FBI investigators. Grand juries have the power to indict on the basis of that evidence and testimony. Says University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladick:
“This is yet a further sign that there is a long-term, large-scale series of prosecutions being contemplated and being pursued by the special counsel. If there was already a grand jury in Alexandria looking at Flynn, there would be no need to reinvent the wheel for the same guy. This suggests that the investigation is bigger and wider than Flynn, perhaps substantially so.”
Separate grand juries have been impaneled to investigate disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn as well as former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort for their roles in alleged collusion with Russia during and after the Presidential campaign.
Stay tuned. This just got an order of magnitude more serious.
UPDATE: Well, it looks like subpoenas have been flying -- in connection with people involved in the 2016 meeting between
UPDATE II: A right- wing former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney puts it in context --
UPDATE III: Bang, zoom --This is officially criminal now. You don't impanel a grand jury for a counterintelligence investigation.— Andrew C. McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) August 3, 2017
We're about to see what happens when a White House that runs on a culture of lying collides with a process where lying means jail time.— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) August 3, 2017
