Because President Trump’s pre-presidential and presidential journey is one of the most fascinating political stories of a lifetime, it’s interesting to understand the notion of prosecutorial misconduct as it relates to Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and his team.
Take a look at the following extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutorial_misconduct . I marked in BLUE what MAY be attributable to Bob Mueller’s team of “17 angry Democrats” as they are labelled by Donald Trump.
Types of Misconduct
1. False confession (possible but unknown until cross-examination of witnesses)
2. False arrest – abetting
3. Falsified evidence (possible but unknown until cross-examination of witnesses by Trump team)
4. Intimidation (most people are intimidated by the wide powers of Special Prosecutors)
5. Police brutality – abetting
6. Prosecutorial corruption
7. Political repression (possible because we have not seen too many Democrats brought into the Russian picture although there is plenty of smoke)
8. Racial profiling
9. Sexual abuse
10. Surveillance abuse – abetting (very likely due to FISA abuses)
11. Testifying — Subornation of perjury (possible but unknown until cross-examination of witnesses)
12. Failure to disclose exculpatory evidence (we have heard about no evidence with respect to helping Donald Trump)
Unethical and/or Abusive Practices
1. Selective prosecution by race, income, political affiliation, etc. (possible because we have not seen too many Democrats brought into the Russian picture although there is plenty of smoke)
2. Capture of the grand jury, misusing it as a tool for inquisitorial abuse, or excluding citizen complaints from being heard. (significant use of Grand Jury)
3. Plea bargaining abuses, such as seeking testimony in exchange for leniency. This may solicit perjury or falsified evidence. (yes)
4. “Horsetrading”, the practice of colluding with defense attorneys to agree to get some of their clients to plead guilty in exchange for letting others off. (yes)
5. Threatening public officials, especially judges, with prosecution if they don’t unduly support their cases.
6. Tainting of jury pools with public statements by prosecutors that are either inaccurate, exaggerated, unsupported by evidence or that could be inadmissible at trial, and such statements become widely promulgated by the media. (lots of negative leaks)
7. Prosecutors causing depositions in a related civil trial which were likely to yield exculpatory evidence, and then “staying” those statements so they cannot be used in a criminal trial.
8. Prosecutors naming a host of “un-indicted co-conspirators” in conspiracy cases to intimidate potential defense witnesses with threats of retaliatory prosecution. (yes, in Cohen case)
9. Prosecutors using their Peremptory Challenges to remove from the jury anyone with relevant experience in the complex subjects of a trial. Defense attorneys often use similar tactics.
10. Prosecutors pursuing criminal penalties for selected industry practices in Corporate America when regulatory intervention would be more appropriate. For example, prosecuting a mechanic for minor violations of the Clean Water Act rather than affording the opportunity for the mechanic to correct their error and pay the appropriate fines. (yes, with regard to Manafort’s taxes)
11. Prosecutors using multidefendant trials to get defendants to turn on one another in the courtroom, as judges may be reluctant to allow separate trials in multi-defendant cases (likely with many individuals on trials and with plea bargains)
