Third Superseding Indictment - Manafort

Special Counsel Mueller added two counts to Paul J. Manafort Jr.'s Indictment and charged Konstantin Kilimnik with these same two counts (Counts 6 and 7) -  (see Third Superseding Indictment here).  The new counts and new charges allege Obstruction of Justice (Count 6) and Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice (Count 7). Both of these alleged offenses come from the same statute - 18 U.S.C. 1512, with the conspiracy using subsection (k) of section 1512. 

The charges are intriguing in that the special counsel elected not to charge using the general conspiracy statute, section 371, a statute he did use in count 1 against Manafort.  The use of the conspiracy provision within a substantive offense is charged in count 2 (conspiracy to launder money), but here there is no charge of money laundering against Manafort. 

So basically you have one conspiracy to defraud charge, two conspiracy charges coming from specific offenses but not charged under the specific offense provision of the general conspiracy statute, and one of the conspiracy charges coming from the same statute as the specific offense that is charged.

So some questions to ponder:

• did the special counsel only want one conspiracy charge under 371 and did not want to combine the specific acts?
• did the special counsel not want to confuse the conspiracy to defraud the government charge with specific offense charges?
• did the special counsel want to leave more room to split the charges if one of the two people now charged decides to cooperate?

There are probably some out there who will argue that this is all to get cooperation. And whether that is true  is not the question being asked here. Special Counsel Mueller has a professional and skilled team and learning their thoughts on why things were charged in a certain way will hopefully be a talk he gives years from now to some bar association. In the interim, please continue to work as diligently as you have been.

(esp)