Special Counsel considered charging Don Jr and company with conspiracy to break FEC laws

Apparently, the Special Counsel's office did consider charging Don Jr, Manafort, and Kushner with conspiracy to violate FEC laws relating to taking things of value from a foreign source, but determined the case would be too difficult to prove in court, given how uncharted the territory the case was.

Special Counsel's Report said:

This series of events [surrounding the June 9 meeting] could implicate the federal election-law ban on contributions and donations by foreign nationals . . . Specifically, Goldstone passed along an offer purportedly from a Russian government official to provide “official documents and information” to the Trump campaign for the purposes of influencing the presidential election. Trump Jr. appears to have accepted that offer and to have arranged a meeting to receive those materials. Documentary evidence in the form of e-mail chains supports the inference that Kushner and Manafort were aware of that purpose and attended the June 9 meeting anticipating the receipt of helpful information to the Campaign from Russian sources.

The Office considered whether this evidence would establish a conspiracy to violate the foreign contributions ban . . . solicitation of an illegal foreign-source contribution; or the acceptance or receipt of “an express or implied promise to make a [foreign-source] contribution” . . . There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a “thing of value” within the meaning of these provisions, but the Office determined that the government would not be likely to obtain and sustain a conviction for two other reasons: first, the Office did not obtain admissible evidence likely to meet the government’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted “willfully,” i.e. with general knowledge of the illegality of their conduct; and, second, the government would likely encounter difficulty proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the promised information exceeded the threshold for a criminal violation.

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Special Counsel Report said:

"Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting,

"The Office ultimately concluded that, even if the principal legal questions were resolved favorably to the government, a prosecution would encounter difficulties proving that Campaign officials or individuals connected to the Campaign willfully violated the law,"

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The reported also stated that Don Jr declined to be interviewed by the Special Counsel, then there's a redacted part, which might possibly answer whether he invoked the fifth.

IOW, the Special Counsel is literally questioning whether the players involved had enough mental awareness to be aware they might be breaking the law. :lamo

Remember, kiddies, only the mob takes the fifth and refuses to testify.

MovingPictures said:

Apparently, the Special Counsel's office did consider charging Don Jr, Manafort, and Kushner with conspiracy to violate FEC laws relating to taking things of value from a foreign source, but determined the case would be too difficult to prove in court, given how uncharted the territory the case was.





The reported also stated that Don Jr declined to be interviewed by the Special Counsel, then there's a redacted part, which might possibly answer whether he invoked the fifth.

IOW, the Special Counsel is literally questioning whether the players involved had enough mental awareness to be aware they might be breaking the law. :lamo

Remember, kiddies, only the mob takes the fifth and refuses to testify.

Click to expand...

shrug...

So the bottom line is...no conspiracy...no cooperation. So it goes...

But what I wonder about is whether that whole meeting nonsense was a setup.

Did Mueller even investigate the facts surrounding the meetings that Russian woman had with Simpson the day before, the day of and the day after the meeting?

Or, like the nonsense about Papawhatshisface and Mifsud, Downer and Halper...did Mueller just ignore all the signs of a setup?

Or...maybe he came up with this reasoning for not pressing charges so he could avoid the revelations if those two cases ever went to trial? You know...to avoid revealing information about the activities of the corrupt Obama administration.

Perhaps Barr...or another Special Counsel that Barr appoints...will call Mueller before a grand jury one of these days.

Been there, done that, got the forum t-shirt.