Part of a memo authorizing probe of election interference remains secret. A judge wants to know why

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 2:34 PM EDT, October 18, 2024


ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge is pressing the U.S. government to explain why a portion of the memo authorizing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of foreign election interference and former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign remains classified seven years after it was issued. At a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie Brinkema gave the Justice Department until Wednesday to explain why the passage must remain classified.

A group of media organizations is asking that the section of the memo from then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein be made public. It says it believes the classified portion refers to allegations that Egypt covertly gave $10 million to Trump’s cash-strapped campaign in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

Much of Rosenstein’s memo authorizing the Mueller probe was declassified and made public in the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was also investigated by Mueller. Manafort was convicted and sentenced in 2019 to nearly four years in prison, but in 2020 was released to home confinement because of the coronavirus. Manafort eventually received a pardon from Trump in December 2020.

At Friday’s hearing, Brinkema told the press coalition’s lawyers that she doesn’t have the ability to make public anything from the trial, like the redacted portion of the Rosenstein memo, if that information is still classified. She said her only option is to press the government to explain its reasons for continued classification.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/egypt-special-counsel-virginia-memo-classified-be2a1909ef1c3728e289d85ae14b2aae

[WhiteTara]

1. I want to see it too.

I have been wondering about that $10million.

[bahboo]

2. Good goddamn question...

[intrepidity]

3. KnR

I want to know too.

[JoseBalow]

4. I'd also like to know why

[msfiddlestix]

5. Given we've had the opportunity under a change in administrations, this matter should have been attended to in the publi

interest, relative to that POS who is yet to be tried for all of his felony charges related to the last election. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that it's been delayed this long.
Or should I say, this doesn't look good for the DOJ. I know it's nothing new.

It's almost status quo and that's a crying shame for any democracy.

[Lulu KC]

6. Ah! The Egypt money!

I wondered what happened to that.

[progressoid]

7. Honestly, if he did get 10 million from Egypt...it wouldn't sway voters.

He'd just babble on and on about how it was perfectly legal and then say that Kamala is getting money China or something.

Then the media would have a frenzy of fact checking that nobody cares about anymore followed by endless panels of experts.

Meanwhile the "undecided" voters are picking their noses; oblivious to what's happened.

[FakeNoose]

9. It happened in 2016 when Chump wasn't President ... yet

He didn't have "Presidential immunity" in any case.

I think we deserve some answers from either Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein.

[progressoid]

10. Sure. But there are LOTS of crimes he comitted before and after 2016 that didn't seem to make a difference.

It's probably because so much of the voting public have been OK with him getting away with crimes, that this seems kind of....meh.

I could never have imagined a person who was found liable in a multi-million dollar sexual lawsuit and found guilty of 34 counts of a cover-up would be re-nominated for the president. AND that person is essentially neck-n-neck with his opponent. It's fucking mind boggling.

Sure, it would be nice to know the details. But with Trump and the nature of today's internet "truth" kind of makes it moot. It's just another fly on the cow pie.

Maybe I'm jaded. Or maybe it is the bottle of Shiraz I just finished off, but I don't think this makes a dent in the election.

[FakeNoose]

12. All the failures you've listed here ... those are failures of the Repuke Party

Somebody as bad as Chump would never, NEVER have been a candidate in the Democratic Party. The real crime is that the Repukes are totally on board with Chump's multiple crimes.

[iluvtennis]

8. I'd never heard of the Egypt money, but i wanna know also. KnR. n/t

[Lonestarblue]

11. I may have missed it, but has the full unredacted Mueller report ever been released by the DOJ?

And if not, why not?