Mark Penn who has worked with both Clintons appeared on ‘The Story with Martha MacCallum,’ in which he trashed the Mueller investigation as corrupt and claims that they are trying to pick the fruit from the Poisonous Tree, an expression used to describe the tainted evidence.
MARK PENN: “Well, look, I spent a year fighting Ken Starr and I think any reasonable person looking at what happened here says this investigation had no foundation and whatever foundation it had was not only wrong but corrupt. I think Christopher Steele was part of the FBI when he leaked, lied, and then was fired. Page and Strzok are clearly biased. The head of the FBI was clearly biased. The head of the CIA appeared to be doing illegal leaks as well. This whole thing was corrupt. There is a doctrine called the fruits of the poisonous tree, that says when investigations get started like, this when searches and seizures are done on this basis, they should be thrown out. I think that’s probably the best way to stop this thing because, otherwise, we are going all the way to the end and I don’t think we should waste another year here.”
Penn is not the first person to say that Mueller has picked fruit from the poisonous tree. Legal expert Jonathan Turley used the term previously regarding the way Mueller obtained Trump’s transition emails. He wrote the following before a meeting between Trump’s people and Robert Mueller, where Mueller was told to return the illegally gotten emails:
For those familiar with Mueller, the blunt-force approach taken toward the GSA is something of a signature of Mueller and his heavy-handed associates like Andrew Weissmann. As I have previously written, Mueller has a controversial record in attacking attorney-client privilege as well as harsh tactics against targets.
It is important to note that Mueller’s move takes his investigation into uncertain legal territory and may ultimately create some new law in his favor. Then again it might not. The question is why Mueller would take the risk. […]
This could ultimately fall into the category of being careful what you ask for. Once again, the Mueller team showed little hesitation or circumspection in plowing into this controversial area. It is the same attitude that led to the reversals of Weissmann at the cost of millions (and ruined lives) in failed prosecutions. If the evidence was improperly seized, it could contaminate later evidence derived from it in a “fruit of the poisonous tree” theory. Mueller would not be the first to face such a cascading problem of contamination. […]
However, if he proceeds to an indictment, he may have created a poison pill factor where indictments could be brought but prove unprosecutable.