Thursday during The Washington Post live coverage of Paul Manafort’s trial, they reported a third Judge has “affirmed the legal legitimacy of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s appointment.”
Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell offered a 93 page opinion, in response to a “legal challenge from a witness,” that argued he couldn’t be “compelled to testify before a grand jury.”
Judge Howell writes in part that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s power to subpoena, “falls within the boundaries the Constitution permits,” adding that Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein did have the “power to do so,” when he appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Judge Howell offers in conclusion to the second Motion to Quash Subpoena that it is denied, and the witness is ordered to appear before the grand jury and provide testimony at the earliest date available.
Judge Howell becomes the third Judge to rule the constitutionality of the special counsel’s appointment, the first, Judge Amy Berman Jackson is handling Paul Manafort’s criminal trial in DC, expected to start in September. The other was Judge T.S. Ellis, who is currently proceeding over Paul Manafort’s criminal trial in Virginia.
The court document does not name a witness, however, The Washington Post’s, Manuel Roig-Franzia reports the attorney for the witness in question told him, the witnesses name is Andrew Miller, “an associate of political operative and Trump adviser Roger Stone.”
