Washington – Prominent Mueller Prosecutor Expected To Leave Team Soon

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    Andrew WeissmannWashington – One of the most prominent prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller is leaving the team soon, a likely indication that the investigation is close to wrapping up.

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    More than any other member of Mueller’s team, Andrew Weissmann has been a target of President Donald Trump’s outrage and singled out for attacks, including by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, as an overly aggressive prosecutor.

    Mueller spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement Thursday that Weissmann would be concluding his work with the team “in the near future.” He did not give a date, but the looming departure is not surprising given that the principal case Weissmann has worked on — against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — came to a close Wednesday with a sentencing in federal court in Washington.

    Several other prosecutors detailed to Mueller’s team have also left in recent months, suggesting that the investigation is winding down and that Mueller may soon turn in a report to Attorney General William Barr.

    Weissmann, who worked as an FBI general counsel under Mueller, most recently led the Justice Department’s fraud section. He achieved prominence for his work as a prosecutor while investigating the mob in New York City and for his leadership of a task force that investigated the Enron scandal. He has developed a reputation as an aggressive and experienced prosecutor skilled in developing cooperating witnesses.

    Since Weissmann joined Mueller’s team in 2017, Trump has occasionally singled him out for criticism, using his name as a kind of shorthand for what he maintains is an illegitimate effort to bring him down. Republicans eager to paint the Mueller team as biased against Trump have seized on a January 2017 email he wrote complimenting former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, an Obama administration holdover, for refusing to defend the Trump administration’s travel ban.

    Weissmann’s expected departure was first reported by NPR News, which said he would study and teach at New York University and work on public service projects.

    Weissmann was also part of the team that prosecuted Manafort’s business associate, Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty last year and agreed to cooperate, and that investigated unregistered foreign lobbying efforts in Washington.


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    5 years ago

    What a lowlife scumbag this guy is.

    5 years ago

    Regarding this special investigation, it reminds me of when Nixon was in the White House, and he was being investigated by the Justice Department. I remember in 1973, Nixon was quoted as stating “Those Jew boys in the Justice Department are out to get me”. In 1974, when Nixon visited Israel, some Israelis in Jerusalem, held up a large sign, which stated “We are all Jew boys here”.