Mueller Guides Us Through the Swamp

[G_j]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/opinion/mueller-investigation-swamp.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

By The Editorial Board
The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

April 22, 2018

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, has not yet presented evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russian agents to subvert the 2016 election. But he has already provided an instructive guide to the swampy world of corporations, law firms and Washington lobbying shops, and to how a tough prosecutor can bring some measure of justice to bear.

The bank- and tax-fraud indictment of President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for instance, lifted a rock on manipulation that’s usually hidden.

Alex van der Zwaan, a former lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for lying to Mr. Mueller’s investigators about his conversations with Mr. Manafort’s associate Rick Gates about a Ukrainian businessman believed to be a Russian intelligence operative.

Wait, you say, Skadden Arps? One of the top law firms in the country? How did they get caught up in this?

It turns out that the firm was among the beneficiaries of $4 million in largess that Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates distributed several years ago in their efforts as “lobbyists” to promote the Moscow-backed regime that then controlled Ukraine. No less a luminary than the Skadden Arps partner Gregory Craig — who had been White House counsel for President Barack Obama — oversaw a report the firm commissioned that called the government’s prosecution of a dissident flawed but appropriate.

..more..

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Ironic, isn't it?

The swamp seems to be getting deeper and deeper!

Way to go, pres. RUMP!

[G_j]

2. More like a tar pit, I suppose

but toxic, perhaps a superfund site.