(08-01-2018, 05:13 PM)StroudCrowd1 Wrote: Just so I am clear, the first trial of the Mueller special council nearly 18 months into the investigation has absolutely ZERO to do with Russian collusion?

Bullet point (ii) of Rosenstein's initial authorization is that the Special Counsel may investigate "any matter arising directly or indirectly from the investigation" of allegations that people in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
They investigated people in the Trump campaign. 
They found that Manafort was an unregistered agent for the Ukrainian government.  They are now prosecuting that.

Then there is bullet point (iii) which refers to this part of the Code of Federal Regulations:

"The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall also include the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel's investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses; and to conduct appeals arising out of the matter being investigated and/or prosecuted. "

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.4

Because the Special Counsel is specifically directed to take over the investigation that James Comey had already been conducting, any effort to thwart or confuse Comey before he was fired and Mueller was appointed is part of what Mueller's team is tasked with investigating.

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