Wikileaks, Russia and Mueller’s Trump Trap

Has Bob Mueller sprung a giant trap on both Trump and Barr?

Here is my grand theory of the Mueller Report: Robert Mueller was forced to wind up by Bill Barr earlier than he wanted to. Rather than have the unseemly spectacle of a Special Counsel fighting an Attorney General in the courts, Mueller determined to end his probe in such a manner that he would lay a perfect trap for both Barr and Trump. Knowing that Barr was determined to excuse the President, to the point of lying about his work as Special Counsel, Mueller simply made sure that he would use Barr’s propensity to lie to trap the President. He ended his probe by having Barr declare Trump’s guilt – both on obstruction and collusion.

Robert Mueller, I believe, set his trap like this. First, he stated a bland legal principle, probably similar to the way Barr put it at his press conference: distribution of Wikileaks hacked materials would only be illegal if Wikileaks collaborated in the hack with the Russian government. Next, he stated that the evidence before him ‘did not establish’ this. Next, he proceeded to detail all the ways the campaign’s personnel had coordinated with Wikileaks.

Flushed with success, Mr. Barr seized on Mueller’s statement and used it at his press conference to declare – perhaps even a line somewhere in the redacted report – “the evidence does not establish the Trump campaign coordinated illegally.“

They did coordinate; it wasn’t illegal.

And yet, as soon as Mueller wrote down that the Wikileaks was an ‘ongoing matter’, Bill Barr should have taken heed.

• Barr agrees the Russian state, in the person of the GRU hacked the election
• He admits Trump and his team coordinated with Wikileaks
• Barr says that wasn’t a crime because Wikileaks didn’t collaborate on the hack with the GRU
• Barr says there was no obstruction because there was no underlying crime.

Therefore, if it were to be found that Wikileaks did coordinate the hacks with the GRU, Barr has just provided for Trump as follows: Wikileaks and the GRU are conspirators to hack and distribute propaganda; the Trump campaign conspired with Wikileaks; therefore it conspired with Russia. Therefore, Trump campaign officials and supporters are guilty of a criminal conspiracy.

And because new evidence has shown there was indeed an underlying crime, Trump’s actions become, per William Barr, criminal obstruction of justice. Instead of clearing Donald Trump, William Barr might have been tricking into making the case for his prosecution.

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Mueller: Stone, GRU and Wikileaks All Linked

The Roger Stone cases and the GRU case were listed as a related case. Roger Stone moved to have that designation struck out as he said he was no accused of conspiring with the GRU to hack Democrats.

SCO disagreed (and the judge ruled for them). Mueller said the cases were related because they concerned the same criminal conduct; GRU hacking and Stone lying in an attempt to conceal the same; and because search warrants executed in the GRU case yielded evidence in Stone’s case.

But pay attention to this passage in Mueller’s filing:

Those [GRU] defendants then released many of the stolen documents, including through a website maintained by Organization 1. In the course of investigating that activity, the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release.

Several of those search warrants were executed on accounts that contained Stone’s communications with Guccifer 2.0 and with Organization 1. Evidence obtained from those search warrants resulted in the allegations that the Netyksho defendants hacked and stole documents for release through intermediaries, including Organization 1, and that Stone lied to a congressional committee investigating, among other things, the activities of Organization 1 regarding those stolen documents.

The relevant search warrants, which are being produced to the defendant in discovery in this case, are discussed further in a sealed addendum to this filing.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5751615/Stone-2-15-Govt-Response-Re-Related-Case-Objection.pdf

Mueller Criminally Investigated the Coordinating of Wikileaks Stolen Documents

So, what does this mean? First, Mueller criminally investigated the transfer of stolen documents and their timing and promotion. That must mean that he perceived a possible crime in assisting in the promotion and timing of released documents. Now let’s jump back to Barr’s press conference. Barr admits Mueller investigated it criminally:

The Special Counsel also investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts.  

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-release-report-investigation-russian

But Barr then jumps in with his commentary:

Under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy.  Here too, the Special Counsel’s report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-release-report-investigation-russian

If the GRU and Wikileaks Conspired, Team Trump Committed Crimes

Very quickly, to note about what Barr says. He chooses the word “dissemination” to describe what Trump associates did. He distinguishes that from “publisher/publishing”.

“Wikileaks legally published these documents unless they also conspired in the underlying hacking conspiracy.”

He strongly implies:

“If Wikileaks and the GRU colluded in the hacking conspiracy, the dissemination efforts of the Trump folks were illegal. But Wikileaks and GRU did not conspire, so the dissemination efforts were legal.”

The flip side of this is that if Wikileaks and the GRU conspired in the hacks, Bill Barr just admitted Team Trump committed a bunch of crimes. With Russia. Aka Collusion.

FBI Is Investigating Wikileaks Because Mueller Nailed Trump

As I demonstrate in my last piece, it’s reasonably clear that Mueller told the FBI to continue investigating Wikileaks, and that he has placed that investigation in the Appendix as ‘related to Trump Russia/my main investigation’. But he has finished with his own inquiry into Team Trump.

How can we square these two positions? Drumroll: because Mueller has already nailed Team Treason for colluding with Wikileaks. Did they do so? The Mueller Report says ‘Yes they did’.

Barr can say that conduct is not criminal only because Mueller didn’t yet prove Wikileaks conspired with the GRU in the original hack.

But British police dragged Julian Assange from his lair. He’s in Her Majesty’s Prison, Belmarsh, awaiting extradition hearings. And the Wikileaks investigation continues. In the words of the mystery witness prosecutor, it “continues robustly”.

Conclusion:

Mueller has proved Americans conspired with Wikileaks. Wikileaks, we argue, is an ongoing case. Now all the FBI have to do to nail Team Trump on collusion with Russia, criminal conspiracy with Russia, is simply prove that Wikileaks and the GRU conspired together in the hacks of Democrats. Our next article will look at how Mueller’s filings show this to be a probable outcome.

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