A US judge has rejected an attempt by Concord Management to prove that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has treated it unfairly because it is a Russian entity, court documents showed.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th February, 2019) A US judge has rejected an attempt by Concord Management to prove that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has treated it unfairly because it is a Russian entity, court documents showed.
"Concord has presented no new evidence to support its previous claim that the Special Counsel is prosecuting Concord because of its Russian nationality," Judge Dabney Friedrich said in a court order on Wednesday. "Because Concord has demonstrated neither discriminatory effect nor discriminatory intent, its motion is DENIED."
In a court filing on Tuesday, defense attorneys for Concord argued that Mueller treated the company unfairly because he did not give it the opportunity to cooperate and avoid prosecution as he did for an US law firm involved in a similar case.
The defense attorneys were comparing the case against Concord Management to another one Mueller pursued against the prominent US law firm Skadden Arps, which did work on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
In January, Skadden reached a $4.6 million settlement in its case and admitted that it failed to inform the Justice Department about its work for the Ukrainian government, in violation of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The defense attorneys argued that the difference in treatment proves that the Special Counsel's prosecution of Concord is motivated merely by the fact that it is a Russian entity.
Mueller has indicted Concord Management and others as part of his investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Russia has repeatedly refuted the claims of meddling in the 2016 US election, saying the allegations are absurd and intended to deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption as well as other pressing domestic issues.
