President investigated for possible obstruction of justice
UNITED STATES: The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials say.
The move by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump’s own conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Investigators had also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, the officials said.
Trump had received private assurances from former FBI director James Comey that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey was fired.
Five people briefed on the requests, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Admiral Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’ recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week.
The NSA said it would ’’fully cooperate with the special counsel’’, but declined to comment further. The office of Director of National Intelligence and Ledgett declined to comment.
The White House now refers all questions about the Russia investigation to Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. ‘‘The FBI leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal,’’ said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Kasowitz.
The obstruction of justice investigation into Trump began just days after Comey was fired on May 9, according to people familiar with the matter. Mueller’s office has now taken up that work.
The interviews suggested Mueller saw the attempted obstruction of justice question as more than just a ‘‘he said, he said’’ dispute between the president and Comey, an official said.
The officials said one of the exchanges of potential interest took place on March 22, less than a week after Coats was confirmed by the Senate to serve as the nation’s top intelligence official.
Coats was attending a briefing at the White House with officials from several other government agencies. When the briefing ended, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Coats told associates that Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. Coats later told lawmakers that he never pressured to intervene.
A day or two after the meeting, Trump phoned Coats and Rogers to separately ask them to issue public statements denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the president’s requests, officials said.
It is unclear whether Ledgett had direct contact with Trump or other top officials, but he wrote an internal NSA memo documenting the president’s phone call with Rogers, according to officials.
- Washington Post felt