The Department of Justice (DOJ) is ignoring requests for the release of basic information regarding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” according to Judicial Watch (JW).
JW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the DOJ on Wednesday, seeking information regarding Mueller’s operational budget and investigatory activities.
In addition to details of its operational budget, JW is seeking details of Mueller’s investigatory and prosecutorial scope and mandate. The DOJ has not disclosed operational and budgetary limitations — if any — imposed on Mueller’s ostensible investigation into “Russian interference.”
Given Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from any DOJ investigations dealing with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is responsible for Mueller’s investigation.
Via JW:
We sued because the Justice Department, in scandalous fashion, failed to respond to an July 10, 2017 FOIA request for some basic info on Mueller’s budget and operations:
A copy of the budget prepared and submitted by Robert S. Mueller III or his staff in his capacity as appointed “Special Counsel to oversee the previously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters.” Temporal scope of this request is from 17May2017 to 10July2017.
A copy of all guidance memoranda and communications by which the Justice Management Division will review the Special Counsel’s Office’s “Statement of Expenditures” prior to or for the purpose of making each public. Temporal scope of this request is from 1June2017 to present.
A copy of each document scoping, regulating, or governing the Special Counsel’s Office appointed under the leadership of Mueller III. Temporal scope of this request is from 17May2017 to present.
Tom Fitton, JW’s president, described Mueller’s project as “out of control” and not subject to departmental and congressional oversight as it should be:
We believe the Mueller investigation is out of control, constitutionally speaking. I’m not sure what it’s even investigating. It isn’t subject to the accountability and oversight that other Justice Department investigations would be.
Rod Rosenstein is responsible for everything Mueller does, from approving his budget to making sure that he’s complying with Justice Department regulations and standards in prosecutions and investigations.
We filed a new Freedom of Information Act lawsuit just to find out basic information about what Mueller is up to; namely, what is his budget? …
Why is [Mueller’s budget] secret? …
We don’t know what [Mueller’s] scope is. What is he doing? What has he been authorized to investigate? …
We asked those questions of the Justice Department, and they ignored us.
Despite zero evidence being publicly provided to corroborate the Democrat and left-wing narrative of “Russian election hacking,” Fitton noted that Mueller’s investigation seems to be “growing without end.”
Both Congress and the DOJ are “AWOL” in having allowed Mueller’s project to run amok, said Fitton. “The essentially Democrat-run investigation out of the Senate,” he added, has failed to provide any evidence corroborating the “Russian election hacking” narrative despite months of pursuing testimony and thousands of documents.
Watch all of Fitton’s comments on JW‘s most recent FOIA lawsuit below.
Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and NRO columnist, has repeatedly noted the unprecedented size of Mueller’s probe and its seemingly nebulous and open-ended mandate:
Mueller’s probe more resembles an empire, with 17 prosecutors retained on the public dime. So . . . what exactly is the crime of the century that requires five times the number of lawyers the Justice Department customarily assigns to crimes of the century? No one can say.
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