Andrew Miller’s Five Month Stall Leads to a Six Month Investigation of Roger Stone

The DC Circuit has just released its briefing schedule for Andrew Miller’s appeal of his subpoena to appear before Mueller’s grand jury. The hearing in that appeal will be sometime after the matter is fully briefed on October 9. Altogether, Miller will have stalled his testimony for five months by then.

That means Mueller will have been pursuing evidence against Roger Stone, as the most visible evidence of the ongoing investigation, for six months.

As a reminder, here are some things that Mueller appears to be investigating, and here’s what we can learn about the investigation from Stone’s latest lies.

  • February 22: Sam Nunberg questioned by Mueller’s team
  • March 9: Mueller obtains a warrant for 5 AT&T phones (and probably a similar number of Verizon ones)
  • March 9: Sam Nunberg appears before grand jury
  • March 27: Ted Malloch stopped at Logan airport, questioned about Stone and Wikileaks, devices seized, subpoenaed to appear before grand jury on April 13 (the grand jury appearance was rescheduled or canceled)
  • May 2: Michael Caputo interviewed by Mueller team; among the topics discussed was outreach by “Henry Greenberg” to deal dirt on Hillary Clinton to Stone
  • May 9: FBI interviews Andrew Miller at his home for 2 hours, then hand him subpoena
  • May 10: Mueller subpoenas Andrew Miller for documents and testimony, Miller agrees to meet voluntarily with Mueller’s team
  • May 11: Alicia Dearn contacts Mueller and says Miller is no longer willing to appear
  • May 14: Mueller’s team contacts Dearn to inquire about her representation of Miller; she does not return the call
  • May 18: John Kakanis reportedly subpoenaed after having been interviewed by Mueller’s team
  • May 18: Miller blows off a May 18 appearance before the grand jury; Dearn’s employee says Dearn will contact Mueller’s team on May 21
  • May 21: Dearn blows off promised call to Mueller’s team
  • May 23: Mueller’s team emails Dearn a second set of subpoenas, to appear on June 1
  • May 25: Stone says 8 associates have been asked for testimony
  • May 25: Mueller’s team follows up on subpoenas; Dearn asks for more time to comply “given the volume of responsive documents;” Mueller agrees to adjourn document production to June 5 and appearance to Jun 8
  • May 31: Mueller contacts Dearn to confirm appearance; Dearn complains about “patently irrelevant” responsive materials; Mueller agrees to exclude those materials
  • June 1: Jason Sullivan appears before grand jury
  • June 5: Mueller emails new subpoenas reflecting the June 5 production date and June 8 appearance
  • June 6: Mueller emails Dearn to confirm appearance and arrange for travel
  • June 8: Miller blows off grand jury appearance
  • June 11, 8:50AM and 2:15PM: Mueller emails Dearn and asks for immediate contact, warning that Special Counsel would move towards contempt
  • June 12, 9:07AM and 2:15PM: Dearn twice says she’ll provide correspondence within an hour but does not
  • June 13: Mueller moves to compel
  • June 14: Miller filed opposition purporting to be a motion to quash
  • June 18: At hearing on motion to quash, court orders Miller to provide limited set of documents and to appear on June 29
  • June 28: Miller retains Paul Kamenar, paid by the National Legal and Policy Center, who challenges subpoenas as challenge to Appointments Clause, borrowing argument from Concord Management motion
  • June 29: At status hearing in Miller challenge, Kamenar adds another challenge, that Mueller was appointed by “Head of Department”
  • July 18: Hearing on Miller challenge, attended by 5 Mueller lawyers, with follow-up briefing
  • July 31: Chief Judge Beryl Howell rules that Miller must testify ASAP
  • August 1: Kristin Davis interviewed by Mueller team; investigators express an interest in having her appear before grand jury
  • August 3: Dabney Friedrich entertains ignoring DC Circuit and SCOTUS precedent to rule for Concord Management’s challenge of Mueller’s authority, with Kamenar watching; Concord lawyer Eric Dubelier suggests conspiracy in the timing of Howell’s ruling
  • August 9: Miller moves to be held in contempt
  • August 10: Kristin Davis appearance before grand jury
  • September 7: Scheduled grand jury appearance of Randy Credico; Andrew Miller brief due before DC Circuit
  • September 14: Jerome Corsi grand jury appearance
  • September 28: Government brief due in DC Circuit appeal of Andrew Miller subpoena
  • October 9: Miller reply due in DC Circuit

As I disclosed last month, I provided information to the FBI on issues related to the Mueller investigation, so I’m going to include disclosure statements on Mueller investigation posts from here on out. I will include the disclosure whether or not the stuff I shared with the FBI pertains to the subject of the post. 

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65 replies
  1. smurphy999999999 says:

    Interesting on the June 1st and 8th appearance/appearance request. I had been operating under the assumption that the DC grand jury only meets every other week because all the indictments and known appearance dates conformed to an every other week schedule. If appearances were scheduled for the 1st and the 8th that would disprove my assumption. Has it always been an every week grand jury then?

    • emptywheel says:

      It’s the Mueller GJ. And it meets every week, as far as we know.

      There are other GJs going on in DC, but not Friday ones.

      • Frank Probst says:

        I wasn’t sure what this meant.  If the judge hadn’t stayed the enforcement, would Miller have gone to jail until he agreed to testify, or would he have been charged with contempt as a crime in and of itself?

  2. Maestro says:

    I hope the SCO isn’t counting on/waiting for Miller’s testimony before taking their next public step. Given the briefing schedule, we’ll be lucky to get a decision from DC before Election Day. Plus, even if it’s a favorable ruling, there will be an inevitable SCOTUS appeal which will take who knows how long and has an uncertain outcome.

    So I really hope whatever they plan to do next doesn’t depend on Andrew Miller’s testimony.

    • Frank Probst says:

      Mueller doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get the guy to the grand jury, so I doubt he’s some key witness that can testify to something big, and he’s the only one who can do it.  The guy just seems like another cocky asshole to me.  My guess is that he had a window during which he could cut a deal, and he didn’t take the deal, and now that window has closed.

      • Bob Conyers says:

        Sometimes the way a parent sends a message to a kid that they’re really in trouble is to say nothing but “we’ll talk about this later” and then goes back to looking at their phone.

  3. Frank Probst says:

    For those of us that are having trouble keeping up, can you give us your take on who the hell Andrew Miller is, what his relationship with Roger Stone is, and why he would be so daring/stupid in terms up showing up at his grand jury appointments?  Roger Stone is someone who has always struck me as being useless as a prosecution witness unless he has some sort of documentary evidence the prosecution could potentially use.  After listening to him speak for more than 15 seconds, I don’t believe a word he says.  He just doesn’t seem credible.  Prosecuting him would be an endpoint rather than a link in the chain up to someone else, imho.  (As always, I defer to the lawyers, who can probably rip this analysis to shreds.)

    • Peterr says:

      He was the campaign manager at age 26 for Kristen Davis when she was running for NY Gov, at which time he met Stone (who wanted to meet Davis).

      From Newsweek:

      Miller is the stepson of one of Stone’s longtime aides, according to media reports. Stone also confirmed to Newsweek that Miller used to work for him but had not done so for the past three years.

      At age 26, Miller managed the gubernatorial campaign of Kristin Davis, who has said she supplied prostitutes to Spitzer. The scandal ultimately led to his downfall as one of the country’s most prominent Democrats.

      Miller was even part of one of Trump’s flirtations with the White House nearly half a decade before he would kick-start his official campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. In 2011, a so-called Draft Trump movement surfaced in Des Moines, Iowa, home to one of the early key primaries.

      But Politico discovered that the very phone number placed on a number of press releases for Draft Trump was also the same number used for Davis’s campaign. Miller answered the phone when contacted back then.

      Per Betsy Woodruff, his importance here is this:

      Miller has been close with Roger Stone for years. Kristin Davis, the so-called “Manhattan Madam” who testified before Mueller’s grand jury on Friday, said Miller handled Stone’s schedule during the presidential campaign, according to NBC News.

      (Internal links omitted in both quotes above.)

      To the extent that Mueller is trying to put together a timeline of Stone’s travels, phone conversations, and contacts, Miller would be a very fruitful source of information.

  4. Zirc says:

    I don’t know how/why he was allowed to so blatantly blow off a subpoena, but I am even more dumbfounded that the lawyer, Dearn, can escape scot-free from her part in this.

    • Kevin Finnerty says:

      I was equal parts shocked and amused when I first read about Alicia Dearn’s, er, “zealous” advocacy on behalf of Miller. Reading through this latest post got me curious about what her background is. She appears to be a solo practitioner with little to no expertise in criminal law. According to her website bio, Dearn “handles lawsuits and business transactions and gives legal advice in business, employment, real estate, civil litigation and election law.”

      Dearn also appears to be active in the Libertarian Party, having run for the VP nomination in 2016 (she came in a 5th on the first ballot) and contemplated a bid for Senate in Missouri during this cycle.

      More proof that when the Trumpers send their lawyers, they are not sending the best…

  5. SpaceLifeForm says:

    The Brennan coverup.

    A CIA employee responded to the directive, “The fun never stops!”

    https://news.vice.com/article/the-google-search-that-made-the-cia-spy-on-the-us-senate

    Due to the nature of the computer systems at the facility, the Committee has no way to determine who provided the documents and for what purpose,” Feinstein wrote.

    Brennan sent a memo to Meroe Park, the executive director of the CIA, recusing himself and granting her and her office “the lead for all matters.” He then responded to Feinstein on January 27, 2014, saying the Panetta Review was not made available to the Intelligence Committee staffers because it didn’t show up in the audit logs the Cyber Blue Team reviewed. He continued to float the narrative that Senate staffers stole the Panetta Review by hacking into the CIA’s side of RDINet — but he didn’t inform Feinstein that the agency’s cyber sleuths discovered the Google search tool had been misconfigured. He demanded that the documents be returned, and he impressed upon her that the CIA would continue to probe how the Senate obtained them. (In her floor speech, Feinstein suggested that it could have been made available to the committee by a whistleblower).

    [read the article to find out where a copy of the Panetta review resides]

  6. Thomas says:

    I don’t get why these punks get to dance around for months. It’s not like that for ordinary people.

    It’s an outrage these people aren’t sitting in jail.

    • bmaz says:

      Really? I have strung something as simple as a misdemeanor DWI out for nearly two years before. For an “ordinary person”.

  7. melior says:

    Stone is actively pushing his own defense narrative right now that conflicts with the latest Trump spin in some pretty stark ways (not gonna link it, see his stone cold truth blogpost Aug.1)

    In Stone’s reality, he and Don Jr. are innocent bystanders who were both caught in “a set-up” by Natalia V. and Henry Greenberg offering them damaging info on Hillary to entrap them into ConFraudUS. (I guess DNC paid to hack their own server then? He’s not clear on that part.)

    To sell this he seems willing to stipulate a lot of the elements of conspiracy as indicted so far… it’s just that it was all secretly being run by Fusion and Hillary and Glen Simpson and the DNC and the FBI and the Deepstate or something.

    It’ll be interesting to see him try to square this version of events with the Trump-Giuliani spin now that he’s “recently reached agreement to retain a highly respected and nationally known attorney who has represented Donald Trump to join my legal team and lead my defense.”

    • Trip says:

      It’s amazing that they would invest so much in a conspiracy that preceded Trump winning the primary (NRA meeting 2015) and yet they were incompetent or not invested in winning the actual election. Stone’s presto-chango magic on the narrative of events doesn’t even qualify as a good amateur parlor trick.

    • Trip says:

      I watched a clip of her performance last night, when she accidentally on purpose called Trump “Nixon” before correcting herself. It was not great acting, but then again, reality stars scripted one line, well practiced, is “I’m not here to make friends”, right? At least that is the common joke.

      If she has the goods, I hope she has shared them Mueller, and that it doesn’t amount to mostly petty palace intrigue. But then again, that shit might bother Trump the most (taking down the facade), along side the conspiracy evidence (whatever exists). If Omarosa is a dog, she’s playing Toto in this play and pulling the curtain back on the doofus Oz. I hope she hasn’t run out of the good material already. I’m still not buying her book.

  8. Rusharuse says:

    Don’t mention the mole . .

    Cheap seat chatter says questions from jury appear too educated to be asked so early in deliberation. Suggestion: defence mole has burrowed its way into the jury room. Hung jury or aquittal?

    • bmaz says:

      There is not one shred of evidence for this nonsense. Where do you come up with that bullshit? Let’s wait until the verdict is in before taking such fantastical leaps, mmmkay?

        • Trip says:

          If the jury is at all confused, I think part of it falls on the judge. I know he’s not the worst, based on what lawyers here say. But he did demonstrate a bias against the prosecution in front of them.

          • Bob Conyers says:

            It’s a lot of evidence to go through, a lot of definitions to be teased apart, and a lot of legalese to be decoded.

            It’s hard to be a juror, and they’re probably only second to low income defendants on the ladder in terms of the consideration they get from the system. Maybe public defenders get it worse.  Point being, jurors tend to be an afterthought.

            There was a telling remark by Ellis – he admitted that he helped with the design of the courthouse and put a lot of thought into his areas, but didn’t really think at all about jury deliberation areas during the design phase.

            Vastly more thought goes into the usability of instructions for a cheap FitBit knockoff than go into the usability of jury instructions. It’s a major problem.

  9. Trip says:

    FYI: Updated 8:06 PM ET, Mon July 23, 2018
    Rand Paul asks Trump to revoke Brennan security clearance

    Republican Sen. Rand Paul tweeted Monday that he asked President Donald Trump to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who criticized Trump’s performance last week at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    In an unusual move, Paul wrote Monday morning that he would meet with Trump to discuss allegations that Brennan is “monetizing his security clearance” and “making millions of dollars divulging secrets to mainstream media.” The Kentucky Republican added that he would ask Trump to revoke Brennan’s clearance….In a statement to CNN later Monday evening, Paul said anyone who calls the President “treasonous” — as Brennan did — “is someone who is over the top” and lacks “the proper judgment to still have access to classified information.”
    https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/politics/rand-paul-revoke-brennan-security-clearance/index.html

     

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      The wagons are circling.  But the marginal Senator is reaching beyond his purview, and his relationship with Mr. Trump.

      Clearance issues are normally within the president’s discretion (the only way Javanka could have them), as any GOP’er would remind a Democratic Senator attempting to advise a Republican president.  Just as they would tell that Democrat to STFU about whether the president was abusing the normal, albeit constricted, due process issues concerning its withdrawal.

      It is impressive how the entire GOP establishment, from top to bottom, has so rapidly changed tack and chosen to follow its supreme leader in his glorious mission to protect the fatherland.

      The echoes of the 1930s are no longer hyperbole.  That should bother everyone on the planet.  But it’s the American mess to clean up – until it isn’t.  I wonder if that’s why the Chinese are ramping up their air force.

      • Trip says:

        If you notice the date, Paul’s egging on was before the erroneous date on the Trump dictator decree issued on Brennan.

          • Trip says:

            Ha! @Bob, it’s hard to know. They are such fuck ups that it could be a mistake, with the edict sitting since that date, or they put the wrong date in intentionally. It doesn’t really matter.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Not relevant to my argument. The circling of the wagons has been going on for two years.

          Before the 2016 GOP convention, many top Republicans expressed publicly opinions of Trump at least as scathing as Pete Strzok’s – one thing that made his congressional roasting so hypocritical.

          They have since turned into his greatest admirers.  Their supreme leader, in their self-serving eyes, can now do no wrong, regardless of how obtuse, deceitful and corrupt his behavior.

          • Trip says:

            I don’t really think I was disputing your argument. I agree that they are Trump captured as a group. I just think they are so in, that they are making their own Trumpian suggestions at this point.

        • SpaceLifeForm says:

          Which leads to:

          What is the official date of the revoke?

          Was it really 2018-07-26?

          Is there any evidence that it really was revoked?

          • bmaz says:

            And, again, SLF, why should any person on this blog pay attention to your crap?

            You are a diversionary conspiracy theorist that, more often than than not lately, adds bullshit instead of reasonable commentary. What do you add of value?

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Not relevant to my argument.  The GOP have been circling the wagons since 2016.  But it has gotten worse.  It is well beyond the usual rallying round the winner schtick.  It is full blown adoption of his extremism and destruction, the country be damned.

  10. Trip says:

    (Looks like a bad translation) but interesting gist nonetheless, via Rawstory:

    “Democrats and Republicans in the United States compete in the one who no longer loves Russia and who will come up with crueler sanctions. They stuff political points on this, and the people of Russia suffer. If Donald Trump does not extinguish the fire kindling FAKE NEWS Russophobia – it will be his last term,” Klyushin wrote according to Microsoft and Google translation applications. [sic]

    Демократы и республиканцы в сша соревнуюются в том, кто больше не любит Россию и кто придумает санкции пожесче. Они набитают на этом политические очки, а страдает народ России. Если @realDonaldTrump не погасит огонь FAKE NEWS разжигающих русофобию – это будет его последний срок.

    — АРТЕМ КЛЮШИН  (@ARTEM_KLYUSHIN)

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/russian-official-tweets-threat-trump-will-last-term-doesnt-extinguish-russophobia/

     

    Anyone here speak fluent Russian?

    Too late to edit prior comment, but supposedly J Kelly is the one who wants Omarosa arrested.
    It’s not Trump going all out dictator alone. Look at the Rand Paul and John Kelly influence.

  11. earlofhuntingdon says:

    The White House Counsel seems reluctant to remind the president that as the country’s chief executive, he’s not supposed to comment on pending litigation or criminal trials.  Emmet Flood seems much of a muchness in that regard.

    He’s a nice guy and it’s a shame, etc., etc., are pretty much pro-defense comments.

  12. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Greatest Patriot Evuh that he is, Donald Trump is having a fit of pique over the cancellation of his planned, Russian-style, miwitawy pawade – for the public reason that it would cost about $100 million.

    To put salve on his ego, he has decided to run off to Paris for its Armistice Day parade.  (He might also want to sit next to Mrs. Macron, since he seems bored with Melania.)  I hope he is out of bed and dressed by the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, the traditional time for speeches and wreath laying.

    The Parisian celebration will, no doubt, be somber but fantastic, as it will be the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.  Will anyone tell him in English that it is a celebration of a great war’s end, not it’s beginning?

    • Trip says:

      The man is so infantile.

      But this is a good idea:

      Vets group seeks to hold 5K race after Trump cancels military parade: ‘One K for each of Trump’s military deferments’
      In an email asking for signatures to support their request, the organization also said that it decided to make the race five kilometers long to symbolize “each of [Trump’s] deferments.”
      In response to Trump canceling his $$$ military parade in DC, VoteVets announces they’re holding a 5K in DC to raise money for homeless vets. One K for each of Trump’s military deferments.
      FYI: VoteVets has submitted a Letter of Intent, with DC, to do a 5K around the National Mall, for Veterans Day 2019.

So, unless he kicks out a veterans race, @realDonaldTrump will not get his ego parade there, on that day next year, either.#NoTrumpParade— VoteVets (@votevets) August 17, 2018
      In response to Trump canceling his $$$ military parade in DC, VoteVets announces they’re holding a 5K in DC to raise money for homeless vets. One K for each of Trump’s military deferments.— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 17, 2018

      http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/402351-vet-group-to-hold-5k-race-after-trump-cancels-military-parade

  13. Trip says:

    Sigh. Remember in the old days (six or so months ago, maybe longer) when Fridays used to be fun, with leaks (about Trump) in the evening? Make Fridays leak again, or something.

    • bmaz says:

      Don’t worry, real football season and the home stretch of the F1 season are almost here.  Fall is almost in the air!

    • SpaceLifeForm says:

      MalwareTech snuck back into Vegas to check out DEF CON. On a plane no less!
      Back to the scene of the arrest!

      Where many people wondered how he could be there!

      And, he was allowed to leave!

      So confusing. Why is Fox not on this?

    • melior says:

      That’s some excellent shoe leather journalism right there. It doesn’t match up precisely for some reason with the data at opensecrets.org that shows Stop The Steal PAC continued to make payments to Davis in 2018.

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