Mueller indictes "the proverbial ham sandwich"

If you read the WashPost, you would think that this latest development was a complicated legal question involving a sinister Russia spy.

Attorneys for a Russian company accused of funding and overseeing a troll farm operation to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election sparred with the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Wednesday as they appeared in federal court for the first time.

Concord Management and Consulting, one of three Russian companies indicted in February along with 13 Russian individuals, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment before a federal magistrate in Washington — but not before its attorneys and prosecutors insinuated the other side was engaged in legal subterfuge.
...The clash Wednesday revolved around the appearance of attorneys only on behalf of Concord’s management business and not two related defendants under indictment — a subsidiary catering company and Concord’s founder, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a Russian businessman nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because of his close ties to President Vladi­mir Putin.

Legal subterfuge. Putin's Chef.
It all sounds very dark, konspiratorial and complicated.

On the other hand, if you read what was actually said, it all sounds laughably ridiculous.

"What about Concord Catering?" Harvey asked Dubelier. "The government makes an allegation that there's some association. I don't mean for you to – do you represent them, or not, today? And are we arraigning them as well?"

"We're not," Dubelier responded. "And the reason for that, Your Honor, is I think we're dealing with a situation of the government having indicted the proverbial ham sandwich."

"That company didn't exist as a legal entity during the time period alleged by the government," Dubelier continued. "If at some later time they show me that it did exist, we would probably represent them. But for purposes of today, no, we do not."

So the FBI has indicted a company that did not exist at the time of the said crime?
Is this amateur hour?
How do you expect us to take this seriously?
Politico and CNN don't even mention this exchange.

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Wink's picture

said to be "in the know" was in a UToob vid practically wetting his pants at the news.
We got him now!
Turns out they don't. Again.
And very likely won't, as this "investigation" slowly but surely melts down.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

The website Law and Crime had a description of the ham sandwich biting back. Apparently Mueller's team didn't put on the right amount of mayo.

Concord’s argument is that Mueller failed to include a necessary knowledge requirement in count one of the indictment against Concord Management and other Russian entities and therefore, may need to be dismissed. (A knowledge requirement refers to intent or knowledge of criminal wrongdoing. Thus, an allegedly offending party would have knowledge of the criminality they’re alleged to have engaged in.) The motion notes, “violations of the relevant federal campaign laws and foreign agent registration requirements administered by the DOJ and the FEC require the defendant to have acted ‘willfully,’ a word that does not appear anywhere in Count One of the Indictment.”

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-russians-call-out-mueller-file-...

Looks like the filing was apparently very sloppy by the Mueller team.

All this goes to show is that on the "Russian collusion" it is all political theater. I suspect that Mueller's team didn't expect push back, and if there is judicial integerity, will end up looking like partisan morons.

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Steven D's picture

Hahahahahahahaha

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

@Steven D
top.PNG

How is this going to look if he's just incompetent?

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dance you monster's picture

@gjohnsit

Like everything else at TOP looks: partisan, more often than not ignorant, but passionately frothing. Let's credit the frothing -- they do put a lot of effort into that.

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@dance you monster If Mueller or his prosecutors were shut down.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

the discovery phase was going to be an absolute train wreck for the Dims. I just never believed it would get this far. Not in a million years. I am thrilled and delighted to be wrong on this one!

How funny is this? It just might be those dastardly RUSSIANS! who prove it was the Dims who tried to rig the 2016 election.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews Yup, the Concord lawyers wants some discovery action. They called Mueller's bluff.

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that Donny's rather blatant corruption has nothing to do with Big Bad Vlad will be used to end the investigation.

"Sure there's corruption, but notRussian corruption. It's outside of your purview and none of your business."

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They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore

gulfgal98's picture

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@gulfgal98
I like ham sandwiches.
With some spicy brown mustard on toasted rye bread.

I'd indict that.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@gulfgal98

ought to scare the living hell out of everyone...

WHY IS THIS CARGO CONTAINER EMITTING SO MUCH RADIATION?

https://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff_radioactivecargo/

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

gulfgal98's picture

@Amanda Matthews the stories about how shipping containers are being used under diplomatic cover to ship arms and uranium. With diplomatic cover, the containers cannot be opened for inspection. It is known as a diplomatic pouch.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Amanda Matthews's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98

if there ever was one.

EDIT: to add that you should write something up on that.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Pluto's Republic's picture

It's the last nail in the coffin that has turned citizens against their own news media, more or less permanently. That's the tipping point of a failed state. Thanks, Hillary.

The real criminals, here, are the usual liars in the intellectually and morally bankrupt US intelligence agencies. We're looking at Brennan and Clapper, here, for starters. Neither of them can pass for a ham sandwich. They're guilty of sabotage against the government and people of the United States, and responsible for untold diplomatic damage abroad. The fact that their prosecution will never even be contemplated by the pool of sickness we call our government, effectively shoves the nation off a cliff for a long drop to the bottom. US credibility can fall no further.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
dervish's picture

@Pluto's Republic is further proof that our entire government needs an overhaul, at every level. There is scarcely an institution left that is functional and hasn't been corrupted.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

...So the FBI has indicted a company that did not exist at the time of the said crime?
Is this amateur hour?
How do you expect us to take this seriously?
Politico and CNN don't even mention this exchange.

Lol, goes nicely with the 13 indicted internet ad-trolling employees, some of whom hadn't worked there since 2014. And with the "now, entirely evidence-free!" Russiagate claims, all of this to be washed down with a nice bottle of vintage windshield-washer fluid or perhaps some refreshing rubbing alcohol?
Since a Russian!!! catering company is supposed to be involved and all?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

ChemBob's picture

And, if you did, was it error-free? There has become an astounding level of gullibility here that did not exist when the site was formed and I am hugely disappointed in what I am reading. Leave this site for a while...go listen to podcasts...read some of the books about these issues... for fuck's sake, don't just go along with every bit of BS from nonsensical partisan websites that is promulgated on here. You are being played like fiddles.

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