Russian Troll Farm Hearing Devolves Into Tiff Over Call Irking Mueller Prosecutor

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on June 21, 2017. / A... Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on June 21, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Who hung up on whom?

That was a pressing point of contention Wednesday in a federal court hearing involving a Russian company charged as part of a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election.

One of special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors says an attorney for the company hung up on prosecutors about nine minutes into a scheduled hour-long call last week. The call involved providing the company with evidence collected by investigators.

The attorney, Eric Dubelier, denied abruptly ending the call, saying it had reached a mutual conclusion.

Dubelier has taken a confrontational approach on behalf of Concord Management and Consulting LLC. The company is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The judge encouraged the two sides to speak again soon.

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Notable Replies

  1. Somehow I don’t think that tactic Dubelier is attempting is going to fly.

  2. Everyone is entitled to a defense, but why in the fuck this firm is soiling it’s reputation with this representation is beyond me. This isn’t like representing OJ or some celebrity criminal where the firm’s rep gets made despite the odiousness of the client. This is a treason and espionage investigation headed by one of the leading candidates for Most Upright Public Figure in America.

    Aggressive defenses of treason and subversion of democracy by a hostile foreign power aren’t going to wash off of them. They’re rolling in shit and flinging it and they are not going to see a dividend later. There is such a thing as bad publicity. As every former Trump Administration employee who now can’t find a job now can attest.

    And this is coming from me, Mr. Rule of Law, Everyone Gets a Defense, Stop Attacking Lawyers for Aggressively Defending their Clients is Wrong. This is a bad business decision with no moral stand dividend to compensate them for making it.

    ETA: only think I can figure out is that they figure this is going to be a lucrative niche in the future that will give them all the work they want even if their other clients run away from the stench holding their noses.

  3. That industrious little kid who mowed the White House lawn can’t even get a pooper-scooper job these days.

    Worst. Career Move. Ever.

  4. The investigation has moved into the both-sides-are-irked stage. Mueller prosecutors are irked now as well as Kushner and Jr. some time past (see TPM headlines). When we get to the both sides are delivering final arguments stage, wake me up!

  5. Trump was pooping on the WH lawn? I know they don’t have a dog…did the kid wear a hazmat suit?

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