Why Bob Mueller Placed a Controversial Legal Bulldog on His Team

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/why-bob-mueller-placed-a-controversial-legal-bulldog-on-his-team


Why Bob Mueller Placed a Controversial Legal Bulldog on His Team
Andrew Weissmann has a reputation for pushing the envelop. Observers already see his fingerprints on the Russia probe.
Betsy Woodruff
08.16.17 1:00 AM ET


The FBI’s decision to send a dozen agents on an early-hour raid of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s home struck some observers as an audacious, even unprecedented move for a white collar criminal case.

But to former federal prosecutors familiar with members of special counsel Bob Mueller’s team, it had all the makings of the work of Andrew Weissmann.

A former federal prosecutor from Brooklyn who spent his career going after mobsters, ponzi-schemers, and white collar criminals, Weissmann is known as a tenacious operator who uses strategies that have dazzled some legal experts and disturbed others. They believe his presence on Mueller’s team means the probe may push legal boundaries as it investigates alleged collusion between Trump and Russian interests.

“He fashions himself as a real tactician, in the sense of having a chessboard in front of him and moving pieces around,” said a person who has faced Weissmann in court.

Mueller has known and trusted Weissmann for more than a decade, having made him special counsel at the FBI for a few months in 2005, according to the Houston Chronicle. In 2011, after Weissmann left the bureau for a short stint in private practice, Mueller brought him back and made him the FBI’s general counsel.

“Mueller trusted him to be the FBI’s top lawyer,” said a former federal prosecutor who knows Weissmann. “That’s a pretty big deal.”

snip//

But perhaps Weissman’s best attribute for Mueller is that he’s accustomed to cases that involve extraordinarily complicated legal and geopolitical questions – the kind of questions the special prosecutor team will surely face as it looks to unravel allegations that Trump campaign officials and allies worked with Russian government operates in the lead-up to the presidential election.

“If you heard him speaking, you might think he was a computer science professor or something like that,” said a person who previously worked with him. “You wouldn’t cower in fear from him – except he’s really good at what he does.”

[BigmanPigman]

1. If Mueller gets fired I hope his team stays in place.

[Blue_Roses]

2. Mueller isn't getting fired

nt

[madokie]

3. Lets all hope this all doesn't turn into a nothing

like fitmas did

Us old timer DU'rs will remember my reference to 'fitmas'