Even Howard Kurtz seems to be catching on, as he wrote for Fox News.
Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation leaks are continuing apace.
Suddenly, there are a whole lot of leaks about Paul Manafort.
Could this, just possibly, be the special counsel’s way of putting pressure on President Trump’s former campaign chairman?
And
[T]he detailed nature of the leaks is also troubling. As a onetime Justice Department reporter, I can tell you that such leaks in a criminal investigation are rare, as well as illegal.
Here are two of the latest Mueller team leaks (leaks Mueller continues to allow, if not encourage, as demonstrated by his choosing to do nothing about stopping them):
The [New York] Times discloses that when federal agents conducted an early-morning raid at Manafort’s Virginia home in July, they picked the lock. As for details, the story says the agents not only took documents and copied computer files, “they even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.”
Who knows such detail other than Mueller’s agents conducting the raid (assuming we can accept that the NYT isn’t making up such entertaining items)? Certainly not Manafort; had he been there he surely would have opened the door for the agents.
And
CNN reported that federal investigators wiretapped Manafort both before and after the election.
Certainly, Manafort or anyone associated with him would not have known about the taps and so could not have leaked this item. Their knowledge would have defeated the purpose of the tap.
And another leak, this one unmentioned by Kurtz:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has interviewed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about President Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The only people familiar with the investigation would be Rosenstein and his team and Mueller and his team. Rosenstein and his associates have no interest in leaking this interview; indeed, Rosenstein and his associates plainly know better than to leak, both from a legal perspective and a political one as members of the Trump administration. Only Mueller has an interest in leaking this interview.
It’s time for Mueller and his team to be fired for cause and an honest cop put in charge of the special investigation, together with an honest team of investigators. And yes, at this late date, an honest investigation needs to occur—promptly, efficiently, and speedily—in order quickly and without further delay or stall either to vindicate Manafort, Trump, the Trump campaign, et al., or to produce legitimate and serious charges.
And Mueller and each member of his team need to be investigated regarding the felonious nature of these leaks.
