It seems to be a self-perpetuating process for its own sake. The grand jury empaneled in 2017 for Mueller's Russian / Trump Collusion investigation had an 18 month term. It was set to expire on January 5th, 2019. Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court, who oversees the Mueller grand jury, extended its life by 6 more months on January 4th.
During the previous 18 months, Robert Mueller and his team of 17 blood hounds revealed, then indicted, seven people orbiting Trump World. Like a steady tom-tom beat in your face, the MSM drummed the names into the public mind: Flynn, Cohen, Papadopoulos, Manafort, Gates, et al. Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone makes eight.
With each reveal, a MSM infested with Trump Derangement Syndrome, pronounced each indictment as a 'bombshell' causing 'the walls to close in' which predicted 'the beginning of the end' of Trump. Yet, he's still standing.
Some orbiting Trump world were indicted for serious crimes, like money laundering, bank fraud, and tax evasion, commited years before Russian / Trump collusion was even a phrase.
All were indicted for 'minor' crimes resulting from the process of Mueller's investigation, such as the maleable lying to investigators, or catch-all obstruction of justice, etc. Yet to date, no one - zero, zilch, zip, nada, nyet - has been indicted for any crime even remotely related to 'Russia / Trump collusion' - the original mandate for Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller to even begin an investigation.
Harvard Law School law professor emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, writes at The Hill newspaper: Stone indictment follows concerning Mueller pattern
"The strategy used by the special counsel, as described by Judge T.S. Ellis III, is to find crimes committed by Trump associates and to indict them in order to pressure them to cooperate. This is what Ellis said about the indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort: “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud. What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.”
Ellis also pointed out the dangers of this tactic: “This vernacular to sing is what prosecutors use. What you have to be careful of is that they may not only sing, they may compose.” This is indeed a tactic widely employed by prosecutors, particularly in organized crime and other hierarchical cases. However, the fact that it is common does not make this tactic right. Civil libertarians have long expressed concern about indicting someone for the purpose of getting the individual to cooperate against the real target."
"A self-perpetuating process for its own sake."
Joseph Stalin's Chief of Secret Police, Lavrentiy Beria, infamously said, "Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime." There's no suggestion that Mueller is Beria, but one does wonder how we in America arrive at a point where one man has such extraordinary political and police power to pursue anyone for anything related to nothing his power was originally minted - and destroy people's lives in the process - for the process.
"Have you now, or ever been orbiting Trump World, no matter how distant?"
Hold the phone. This maybe nothing, but who knows? Acting AG Whitaker: Mueller investigation is 'I think close to being completed'