Judge may hold Mueller-ensnared Russia firm in contempt

A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge on Thursday said she’s considering holding in contempt of court a Russian firm charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election after it failed to comply with a government subpoena.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in a one-paragraph order sided with federal prosecutors, giving lawyers for the firm Concord Management and Consulting until the end of Friday to explain why their client should not face a civil penalty for missing a deadline to produce documents. Concord is facing charges that it helped fund Russia’s 2016 election meddling efforts.

The Concord trial — scheduled to begin with an initial jury selection hearing on April 1 — represents one of the final outstanding threads from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

The special counsel filed charges in February 2018 against the St. Petersburg-based company and two other Russian businesses, as well as 13 Russian individuals, claiming that together they financed and organized an army of internet trolls that worked to sow discord among American voters and sway the last presidential campaign in Trump’s favor.

Only Concord has stepped forward to fight the charges in court, hiring a U.S.-based law firm to mount its defense. The company is controlled by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin and known as “Putin’s chef” because his restaurants and catering business have hosted dinners for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thursday’s order from Friedrich sides with the federal prosecutors who inherited the Concord case from Mueller’s since-shuttered investigation. The judge scheduled a Monday hearing on the issue and also ordered the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., to make public a redacted version of its initial motion spelling out its reasons for why Concord didn’t comply with its pretrial document demands.