For all the outside noise, the special counsel seems to make progress
Rudy Giuliani speaks at the Conference on Iran on May 5, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis
Five months have passed since lawyer Rudy Giuliani joined President Donald Trump’s Russia-probe team saying: “I don’t think it’s going to take more than a week or two to get a resolution.”
Several weeks later Giuliani talked about a Sept. 1 wrap-up. That didn’t happen either.
The former mayor isn’t the only one bent on sharing wishful thinking out loud.
Last week, Trump told Hill.TV he hoped “one of my crowning achievements” would be “to expose something that is truly a cancer in our country” — a cabal against him by the FBI or the deep state.
Supposedly, Trump’s move to order certain Justice Department documents declassified would bolster this effort. Previous efforts by allies in Congress to develop convincing evidence of the Democratic mega-conspiracy have fizzled.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia election meddling probe — by all credible accounts intact and legal — goes on under the Justice Department aegis.
Former FBI Director James Comey said last week in a radio interview it looked to him as if the investigation, which his staff started by working from the bottom, is getting “pretty high up” with the Paul Manafort plea deal — and thus appears to be in its final stages.
Some lawyers told Politico the Manafort deal included certain waiver provisions that could undermine any effort by the president to pardon his way out of trouble.
Important witnesses are evidently in hand, with the details they’d impart still a mystery.
Manafort chaired Trump’s presidential campaign for a crucial period in 2016. Lawyer Michael Cohen, who has also admitted to crimes, served as the real estate heir’s attorney for years, sometimes tape-recording him.
According to ABC News, Cohen has had hours of conversations with the special counsel. The talks reportedly covered Trump dealings with Russia — including his private financial and business transactions — as well as possible “collusion” with the Putin government in the American election.
Trump continues to moan about Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I don’t have an attorney general,” he said. “It’s very sad.” But he soon amended that by acknowledging, “We have an attorney general” and adding: “I’m disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons.”
Giuliani keeps doing his version of infield chatter for the TV cameras.
After the Manafort convictions he said: “Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: The president did nothing wrong.”
In July, Giuliani said of Cohen: “As long as he tells the truth, we’re home free.” Since then he has called Cohen a “pathological manipulator” and a “scumbag.”
Parameters keep changing, but for all the speculation, Mueller’s probe still seems active and substantial, even if its ultimate outcome remains unknown.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
