The left continues to perpetuate bogus conspiracies.
Not one shred of evidence has been found, and yet the media has liberals fooled that Trump colluded with Russia.
But now there’s new breaking news into the Trump-Russia investigation.
The Washington Times reports:
“One of the lawyers whom special counsel Robert Mueller has hired to investigate President Trump is pulling double duty, still working part time as a deputy solicitor general in the Justice Department.
The curious arrangement may not pose a direct conflict of interest, ethics analysts said, but it does leave Michael Dreeben on a team investigating Mr. Trump even as he serves as the executive branch’s attorney overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal docket before the Supreme Court.
‘The whole point of the special counsel is to insulate him and his staff from the Trump administration,’ said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University.
‘Having one of your chief deputies working simultaneously for the special counsel and the solicitor general’s office can create a rather novel division of labor.’
Mr. Dreeban is the only person on the 13-member team still holding another job.
All of the lawyers who were in private practice resigned from their firms, while government lawyers plucked from within various branches of the Justice Department have taken leave of their posts and are on full-time detail to Mr. Mueller.
Representatives for both the Justice Department and the special counsel confirmed that the Justice Department approved the arrangement.
‘Michael Dreeben is working on legal issues as a counselor in the special counsel’s office while retaining certain responsibilities as deputy solicitor general to ensure continuity of representation of the United States in the Supreme Court,’ said Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr, who declined to discuss any steps taken to compartmentalize Mr. Dreeben’s dual roles.
He declined to comment beyond that, saying the department does not discuss personnel staffing matters.
But Dreeben joining the team is undoubtedly a conflict of interest.
One instance where such a conflict could occur is if Dreeben argued a position for solicitor general that would directly oppose a stance that the special counsel wants to pursue.
Dreeben is also interpreting and extrapolating the definitions of crimes, which could potentially be used against President Trump.
This is certainly something that shouldn’t be taken lightly when the investigation concludes what we all already know – there isn’t a shred of evidence that indicates Trump or his team colluded with Russia during the general election campaign.
But there is another key area where Dreeben could cause other potential problems.
The Washington Times continued:
Kathleen Clark, an ethics law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, laid out another problematic scenario in which the solicitor general’s office argued for a narrow view of immunity for the president and Mr. Mueller’s team later sought to bring criminal charges against Mr. Trump.
With so little known about exactly what Mr. Mueller’s team is pursuing, Ms. Clark said, she wasn’t aware of any such positional conflict in play.
Even with Mr. Dreeben’s years of experience, ethics analysts say, precautions should be taken to prevent any conflict between his two positions — including a strict ban on any work for the special counsel on any solicitor general computers or accounts.
The special counsel has a computer network set up separately from the Justice Department for the investigation.
Another precaution would be to set boundaries for recusal by Mr. Dreeben from any cases taken up by the solicitor general’s office that have the potential for overlap with Mr. Mueller’s probe.
‘It would probably not be a good time to be working on overlapping matters that might create the appearance that the special counsel’s office is being directed by the solicitor general’s office,’ said Richard Painter, who was a White House ethics counsel under President Bush.
‘You can easily avoid that by staying away from related matters over at the solicitor general’s office.’”
Dreeben should immediately recuse himself like Jeff Sessions did, and if he doesn’t, then he should be forced out.