Bharara: ‘Doesn’t seem’ Mueller’s investigation ‘ending any time soon’

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that it doesn’t appear that special counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to conclude his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I’m an outsider now, and I don’t still run the Southern District of New York, and I’m not aware of what’s going on with various investigations that sometimes intersect with the special counsel’s investigation,” Bharara said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“But I think people should view with some skepticism the notion that gets breathlessly reported every week that the Mueller investigation is coming to an end.”

{mosads}Bharara, who was fired by President Trump shortly after the president took office, acknowledged that the departure of a top prosecutor in the probe, Andrew Weissmann, could mean things are drawing to a close.

However, he pointed to Mueller’s request that a federal judge further postpone sentencing for Rick Gates on account of cooperation in “several ongoing investigations,” as a sign that the investigation still has legs.

Gates, who served as Trump’s deputy campaign chairman and is an ex-business partner of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI last year and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation.

“It doesn’t seem to me based on that, although I don’t know, that the work of the special counsel is ending any time soon,” Bharara said. “Unless it’s the case… that the cases in which Rick Gates is cooperating are being parceled out to other U.S. attorney offices.”

Former U.S. Attorney @PreetBharara: doesn’t seem to me that “the work of the special counsel is ending anytime soon…” pic.twitter.com/Q17hNDuFEb

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 17, 2019

Mueller’s investigation has thus far implicated six former Trump associates and more than 20 Russians. Manafort was sentenced last week to additional prison time as part of the probe, bringing his total sentence to 7.5 years.