This week, one of the Russian companies accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of funding a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was revealed in court to not have existed during the time period alleged by Mueller's team of prosecutors, according to a lawyer representing the defendant. U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey asked Eric Dubelier, one of two lawyers representing the accused Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, if he was representing a third company listed in Mueller's indictment.
"What about Concord Catering?" Harvey asked Dubelier.
"The government makes an allegation that there's some association. I don't mean for you to – do you represent them, or not, today? And are we arraigning them as well?"
"We're not," Dubelier responded.
"And the reason for that, Your Honor, is I think we're dealing with a situation of the government having indicted the proverbial ham sandwich."
"That company didn't exist as a legal entity during the time period alleged by the government," Dubelier continued.
"If at some later time they show me that it did exist, we would probably represent them. But for purposes of today, no, we do not."
The term "indict a ham sandwich" is believed to have originated from a 1985 report in the New York Daily News when New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler told the news publication that government prosecutors have so much influence over grand juries that they could get them to "indict a ham sandwich."