Information that is emerging in court indicates that in the case of Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into many areas, not just those mentioned in the current indictment.
The one thing that Mueller has definitely not done is to leak information. In fact, the investigation has been so air-tight that the silence from that quarter is sometimes deafening; long periods of invisible activity broken by sudden events like the raid on Michael Cohen’s office—and Paul Manafort’s home. Many have complained that Mueller is being so quiet that he’s losing the war to control public opinion. Which may be the only war that counts when it comes to making anyone pay for crimes surfaced by the investigation. But that is unlikely to change.
One of the few windows into what’s going on behind the scenes has been court filings. The indictments handed down by Mueller of Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and others, have provided the public with tantalizing glimpses of information that was not previously known. The case against Trump campaign chair and perennial Republican organizer Paul Manafort has been particularly enlightening, That’s true mostly because Manafort has fought the investigation at every turn, not just hiding information, but taking the fight to court where Manafort’s team has taken several swings at the idea of disqualifying Mueller. They’ve argued the position that Mueller can’t go after Manafort because he is overstepping his directive. And lost. They’ve argued that the whole idea of a special counsel is unconstitutional. And lost.
But those loses resulted in documents giving official responses from Mueller. Among those replies was the very big news that Mueller had special instructions from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigation Manafort’s actions as a political strategist assisting pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. That document, and others related to the indictment and sentencing of Dutch attorney Alex Van der Zwaan in connection to Manafort’s European connections, revealed that Mueller had a much broader writ than many has suspected. It was also clear that much of Mueller’s authority had still not been revealed.
Including in the paperwork are requests that the court preserve electronic records around Manafort’s many phones and online accounts. And, as TPM reports, the reason seems to be unconnected to anything in Manafort’s current set of indictments.
Just because Manafort has been charged and is facing trial doesn’t mean that Mueller doesn’t still have other charges for the man who once ran the consulting firm with the nickname “the torturer’s lobby.” Much of what’s still out there is likely related to Manafort’s long-time association with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Previous accounts have speculated that Mueller was seeking to set up a back channel to Russia, by working through Van der Zwaan, Deripaska, and his other Ukraine-related connections. That news came directly from the testimony of a Justice Department attorney before a judge in Manafort’s case.
But much of what may still be out there for Manafort is simply unknown. Until Mueller files his final report and puts down his indictment pen, there’s always the chance—even the likelihood—of additional charges. Few of them are being made public now, because the proof on those charges involves other parties who haven’t been charged, or other parts of the investigation that are still unfolding.
Mueller — in a filing last week in a lawsuit brought by media companies seeking to unseal certain investigation documents, including Manafort warrants — said that his probe is “not a closed matter, but an ongoing criminal investigation with multiple lines of non-public inquiry.”
We don’t know everything that Rosenstein has already given Mueller carte blanche to investigate. In the memo that Mueller revealed from August 2 of last year, the authority to look into activities connected with Manafort’s current indictments was only one small part of a document that was mostly redacted. It could have included authority to look into other activities by Manafort. It almost certainly included authority to look at people other than Manafort.
And we have no reason to believe that the single memo Mueller revealed is the only time that Rod Rosenstein has expanded the scope of the investigation.