Mueller probe leaves many witnesses in limbo
WASHINGTON — Over the last nine months, scores of men and women — some powerful and moneyed, others obscure and struggling — have crossed paths with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of prosecutors. So far though, just four have been charged.
The rest — a colorful cross-section of people, banks and businesses — are in limbo. Some fear they may yet be charged, but most are witnesses who have had their lives upended by a rush of questions about Turkish and Ukrainian lobbying, efforts to obtain hacked material, interactions with Donald Trump’s campaign and about every imaginable contact they’ve had with Russians.
As Mueller’s inquiry has become hyper-focused on whether the president or people around him sought to obstruct justice, these lesser-known figures face a nagging question: Is Mueller done with them or not?
Sprawling white-collar investigations like Mueller’s nearly always involve a panoply of witnesses whose co-operation helps build cases, subjects whose actions are of interest to agents and actual targets in jeopardy of criminal charges. Nine months into Mueller’s investigation, it remains unclear exactly how many targets remain in the crosshairs or what will become of the people who have been questioned by the government but given no reassurance of whether their involvement in the case has been concluded.