While we have been led to believe that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, will soon be submitting his final report, one former Justice Department employee warns that it may not happen quite so soon.
John Lauro, a former federal prosecutor, said Tuesday on “America’s News HQ” that this investigation could go on for “many, many months,” dismissing Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani’s recent criticism of Mueller.
The Giuliani Challenge
Giuliani, who has taken over as Trump’s personal lead attorney, has had about all he can take from this investigation.
The former mayor of New York City unleashed a barrage of tweets aimed at Mueller and his investigation over the New Year’s weekend.
The message… put up or shut up.
I challenge Mueller to put up or shut up. You have no evidence of the President being involved in a conspiracy with anyone including Russia to hack. And you also have no evidence of collusion. It’s been 2 years so submit a report to DOJ and we will answer it.
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 30, 2018
I am looking forward to 2019 so we can end the Mueller Witch Hunt before he starts his unpaid traffic ticket investigation. Happy 2019 to all.
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 1, 2019
As Giuliani pointed out, two years in, we still have seen no evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump team to impact the presidential election.
Mueller Indictments
But Lauro, who previously worked for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, believes the investigation is worthwhile.
He pointed to the former Trump advisers and associates that had been indicted on various charges.
He also pointed to the 26 Russian nationals and 3 Russian companies who Mueller indicted over attempted meddling in the election.
What he fails to mention, though, is none of this had anything at all to do with the accusations that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election.
As far as we know, the only thing they have on Trump at this point is a possible campaign finance violation over the money paid to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels for their threats to take their alleged affairs with Donald Trump public before the election took place.
Many have and will continue to argue even this is not an actual violation because campaign money was not used to pay either of these women but rather personal funds.
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Waiting for New AG?
Another reason Lauro believes this report will not be released for some time is that he is confident Mueller will not release his report to an acting attorney general.
He will want to wait until an attorney general has been approved by the Senate before handing it over.
Currently, William Barr has been nominated by Trump to the position, but don’t expect a quick and easy confirmation. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has promised that Barr would “have a steep hill to climb in order to be confirmed by the Senate,” while Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) stated that Barr “must commit to supporting” the Mueller investigation.
