Washington Post: Mueller Prosecutor Says Special Counsel 'could Have Done More' In New Book

Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann — who had spearheaded the prosecutions of former Ukrainian lobbyists and Trump marketing campaign leaders Paul Manafort and Rick Gates — writes in “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation,” that he now wonders if the group had “given it our all,” in keeping with the Put up.

“As proud as I’m of the work our group did — the unprecedented variety of individuals we indicted and convicted and in file pace for any comparable investigation — I do know the laborious reply to that straightforward query: We may have completed extra,” Weissmann writes, in keeping with the Put up.

CNN has not seen a duplicate of the e book. A consultant for Mueller declined to remark.

Based on Weissmann, the particular counsel feared prompting outrage from the President, and consequently, “we nonetheless have no idea if there are different monetary ties between the President and both the Russian authorities or Russian oligarchs.”

“We have no idea whether or not he paid bribes to international officers to safe favorable therapy for his enterprise pursuits, a possible violation of the Overseas Corrupt Practices Act that would offer leverage in opposition to the President,” the books states, in keeping with the Put up. “We have no idea if he had different Russian enterprise offers within the works on the time he was working for president, how they may have aided or constrained his marketing campaign, or even when they’re persevering with to affect his presidency.”

In the course of the investigation, Weissmann had secured each Gates’ and Manafort’s convictions and cooperation — however Manafort lied to the grand jury and Mueller’s group, leaving main questions nonetheless answered about why he shared American polling numbers with a Russian intelligence-connected affiliate working in Japanese Europe.

The Mueller investigation didn’t charge any Americans with conspiracy in Russia’s makes an attempt to assist Trump in 2016. But it surely additionally could not get to all proof it sought, equivalent to what Manafort knew or deleted textual content messages between key Trump officers.

Mueller additionally by no means subpoenaed Trump for testimony, as an alternative accepting written solutions that raised much more questions for the Mueller group. After documenting a number of episodes through which Trump tried to finish the investigation prematurely, Mueller declined to resolve whether or not to cost him with obstruction of justice. Lawyer Basic William Barr and different Justice Division leaders selected to not indict the President.

Weissmann took challenge with Mueller’s option to not attain a conclusion on charging Trump, telling the Put up in an interview, “I’d have completed it.”

“I advised him why I’d have completed that,” he mentioned.

The discharge of Weissmann’s e book subsequent week comes after it was cleared by Trump administration reviewers in July.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

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