WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has found a witness in contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury that's hearing evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller's refusal to appear before the grand jury. Miller is a former aide to Roger Stone, President Donald Trump's longtime confidant.
Miller's lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was "held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge's decision to the court of appeals."
Howell stayed her order while Miller's legal team appeals the judge's decision.
Miller lost a court battle earlier this month to quash a subpoena, after Howell issued a 93-page opinion saying Miller must testify before the grand jury.
Kamenar said he believes Miller's challenge could ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
"None of these questions are easy," the lawyer said, adding that the appeal was designed to challenge the constitutionality of Mueller's appointment, not slow or obstruct the investigation.
Separately, another Stone associate, Randy Credico, said Friday that he had received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury Sept. 7 and did not plan to fight it. Stone has claimed that in 2016 Credico was a conduit to Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
A hearing transcript from June 18 shows Miller was subpoenaed for information about Stone as well as key figures in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee, and the public release of Democrats' emails during the campaign. According to that transcript, the subpoena seeks information from Miller about WikiLeaks and Assange. WikiLeaks published large volumes of hacked Democrats' emails during the campaign.
The subpoena also seeks information about Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks. Investigators say both were online fronts invented by Russian intelligence operatives to spread the hacked documents. DCLeaks was a website that posted hacked emails of current and former U.S. officials and political aides, while Guccifer 2.0 claimed to be a Romanian hacker.
Stone, through his attorney, has acknowledged having a "24-word exchange with someone on Twitter claiming to be Guccifer 2.0." The statement from lawyer Grant Smith said the exchange "provides no evidence of collaboration or collusion with Guccifer 2.0 or anyone else in the alleged hacking of the DNC emails."
Miller had asked for "some grant of immunity" regarding financial transactions involving political action committees for which he assisted Stone, according to Alicia Dearn, an attorney for Miller.
On that issue, Miller "would be asserting" his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions, Dearn said.
As for the hacking and WikiLeaks questions, Dearn said at the hearing, "we don't believe he has any information" about those topics.
Court filings unsealed Friday show Miller was first subpoenaed in June to testify at the end of that month, setting off months of legal jousting.
At the June 18 hearing, Dearn said that while she believes Miller is "innocent of any wrongdoing, I don't want my client to step into something that might be happening." She said she was concerned he could lose or waive his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by answering investigators' questions.
Prosecutors called it contradictory for Miller's lawyers to claim, on the one hand, that he knew nothing of value and participated in no illegal activity, and simultaneously claim an unspecified Fifth Amendment concern.
Aaron Zelinsky, one of Mueller's prosecutors, said at the hearing that Miller sat for a brief FBI interview without raising such concerns, and had planned to meet with prosecutors for an informal interview without any proffer for immunity -- as would normally be the process -- before Dearn's appearance in the case.
At the time, Miller was complying with a subpoena for records, according to the transcript. Dearn said Miller found thousands of documents, many of which were emails received to Stone's website, which Miller had forwarded to him to respond to booking requests. Dearn said Miller worked with Stone very little in 2015 and 2016, but continued to receive forwarded emails now subject to prosecutors' subpoena.
"There may be responsive documents, but it's not that he is still working for Mr. Stone," Dearn said.
Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit that is funding Miller's legal fight, said Miller is in Missouri.
Earlier in the day, Kamenar and Flaherty were seen entering Howell's courtroom before she sealed it, and declined to comment on the proceeding.
Kamenar spoke afterward, confirming that it was a hearing held after prosecutors filed a motion to find the witness in contempt.
When a subpoenaed witness refuses to testify before a grand jury, that person can be held in contempt. In some cases, such a contempt finding can lead to a witness being sent to jail until the person agrees to testify.
Kamenar argued after the proceedings that Mueller's appointment is unconstitutional. He asserted that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not have the authority to appoint Mueller to lead the investigation into Trump campaign contacts with Russia.
Previous challenges to Mueller's legitimacy have failed.
Trump has sought to undermine the investigation by calling it a "witch hunt" and a "hoax." He has repeatedly insisted, "there was no collusion."
Kamenar also said a prosecutor with powers as broad as Mueller's should be treated like a U.S. attorney and be subject to Senate confirmation.
"There's been no authority, we say, that gives the Justice Department the power to appoint Mr. Mueller," Kamenar told reporters outside the courthouse.
Kamenar asserted that Mueller has vastly more authority than any U.S. attorney, including the ability to indict foreign actors and bring cases in more than one jurisdiction.
"So our point is if the U.S. attorneys have to be approved by the United States Senate, so, too, should Mr. Mueller," Kamenar said.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel last year after Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped aside from the Russia investigation. A former U.S. senator, Sessions was one of Trump's earliest Senate backers and was involved in campaign operations. Sessions met several times with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
Mueller is investigating whether any of Trump's associates conspired with Russia's efforts to influence the election. Stone has faced scrutiny in part because of a series of public statements and tweets he made during the 2016 campaign appearing to suggest that he had advance knowledge of the hacked emails released by WikiLeaks. The emails' publication embarrassed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and helped disrupt the presidential race.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian government was behind the hacking of the material from the Democratic Party and the personal email account of Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. A grand jury indicted 12 Russian military officers in July for orchestrating the hacks.
Miller worked for Stone during the 2016 presidential campaign, handling duties such as setting up media interviews. He is one of at least a half-dozen of Stone's associates to be called to testify. Others include his driver, John Kakanis, and a social media consultant, Jason Sullivan. Kristin Davis, who gained notoriety in the 2000s as the "Manhattan Madam" when she ran a high-end prostitution ring, is also expected to testify to the grand jury.
Stone has accused Mueller's team of harassing his associates.
Information for this article was contributed by Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post; and by Jeff Horwitz and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/11/2018