6:04 p.m. ET, March 25, 2019
Mueller's team is handing off its cases
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is handing off its open criminal case to the DC US attorney’s office, and his prosecutors are exiting ongoing court proceedings.
Andrew Weissmann, one of Mueller’s most aggressive prosecutors and the one who oversaw the effort to flip Paul Manafort, withdrew from the Manafort case in DC District Court today.
So did his fellow trial lawyers Greg Andres and Jeannie Rhee, as well as several others who had worked on the case from Mueller’s office.
Andres led the prosecution of the former Trump campaign chairman at trial last summer in the Eastern District of Virginia, while Rhee has been involved in nearly every court hearing in recent months that Mueller’s team has handled, in any case.
Even with the special counsel’s office departures and with Manafort sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, the case against two of his associates continues and still needs prosecutors.
In their place, five federal prosecutors based in DC popped up on Monday to work on the ongoing criminal matter against Manafort’s two close associates, Konstantin Kilimnik and Rick Gates, who also served on Trump's presidential campaign and worked on the inauguration.
Gates pleaded guilty last February and continues to cooperate with the Justice Department on several ongoing matters. Kilimnik, who lives in Russia, has not appeared in US court to face witness tampering charges.
One of the new prosecutors is Jonathan Kravis, who’s taken a leading role in almost all of the open Mueller court cases in recent weeks.
A DC assistant US Attorney named Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez has entered appearances in the Manafort case in DC and the case against Sam Patten
Patten’s case, for illegal foreign lobbying that led to getting Kilimnik and a Ukrainian oligarch tickets to the Trump inaugural, is related to Manafort’s — though it’s never been primarily prosecuted by Mueller and has always been handled by the DC US attorney’s office.
Also taking on Gates’ ongoing criminal case, which hasn’t yet been scheduled for sentencing, are Molly Gulland Gaston, Deborah Curtis and Zia Mustafa Faruqui, according to new attorney appearances filed in court Monday. Gaston focuses on fraud and public corruption, while Fauqui is working on several open cases in the court system, including a money laundering conspiracy case against eight Russians for transactions in Syria. Curtis notably has experience as a national security prosecutor and is involved in the Concord case.
The federal prosecutor in DC is also working on the Roger Stone and Concord Management and Consulting cases, which are headed to trial.