Lawyers to meet Mueller
Trump slams the FBI, but his legal team says it is ‘cooperating’ with special counsel’s Russia investigation as key White House aides undergo questioning.
US President Donald Trump’s private lawyers are set to meet with Special Counsel Robert Mueller as early as next week to discuss the next phases of his Russia investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, who represent Trump personally, are likely to use the meeting to get a sense of the next steps in Mueller’s probe, which has already resulted in indictments and plea deals involving four former associates of the president.
Dowd declined to comment on the meeting, while Sekulow said: ‘‘We do not and will not discuss our periodic communications with the special counsel.’’ CNN first reported the planned meeting.
The president’s legal team has said it has been cooperating with Mueller, as the president’s lawyers continue to send signals that they expect the special counsel to begin wrapping up his probe soon.
Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer, said in November that he expected interviews with White House staff to wrap up shortly after Thanksgiving, and that the vast majority of documents requested from the White House by Mueller were handed over in October.
"The office of special counsel is working diligently to complete its interviews" and the White House has been cooperating with the investigation to expedite its conclusion, Cobb said back then.
A US official said it was possible that Mueller’s team of more than two dozen prosecutors and FBI agents would complete an opening round of interviews with key Trump aides who worked in the White House by the end of the year, but additional interviews could be scheduled later.
Mueller was given a broad mandate when he was appointed by the Justice Department in May to investigate whether Trump or any of his associates colluded with Russia to influence last November’s presidential election, as well as any other matters arising from that inquiry.
To build his case, Mueller had been pursuing multiple investigate angles beyond the White House, a second US official said. These included potential obstruction of justice related to Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, financial dealings in the US and abroad by Trump family members and associates, and Moscow’s efforts to manipulate Facebook and other social media platforms, the official said.
So far, Mueller has indicted Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as well as another campaign aide, Rick Gates, for money laundering and other crimes. Manafort and Gates have said they are not guilty.
Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents and agreed to be a cooperating witness in Mueller’s probe.
George Papadopoulos, a junior foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign, also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the timing of his contacts with Russian operatives.
Among those who have been interviewed by Mueller’s team are White House Counsel Don McGahn, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg,
It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI ... We’re going to rebuild the FBI, it’ll be bigger and better than ever, but it is very sad when you look at those documents, and how they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. Donald Trump
according to people the investigation.
Others whose activity was under investigation include Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner, the second official said.
Trump said yesterday there was tremendous anger over what he called the FBI’s ‘‘disgraceful’’ behaviour, taking aim at the bureau just before he appeared at its training facility to praise the nation’s police officers.
‘‘It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI,’’ the president told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House for a ceremony at the FBI’s National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where more familiar with than 200 law enforcement officers graduated from a programme that imparts FBI expertise and standards.
‘‘We’re going to rebuild the FBI, it’ll be bigger and better than ever, but it is very sad when you look at those documents, and how they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it.’’
Trump appeared to be referring to revelations that senior FBI officials exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton text messages while working on last year’s probe of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, and again during Mueller’s investigation.
Trump has previously said the FBI’s reputation is ‘‘in tatters’’ for its handling of politically sensitive cases.
His comments also highlighted what has become a recurring theme during his presidency: his tendency to criticise the FBI and extol the local police officers who have become central to his lawand-order agenda.
At Quantico, Trump appeared on stage with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who introduced the president by calling him ‘‘our nation’s highest law enforcement official’’.
That assertion carries possible implications for the ongoing criminal probe into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice leading up to the firing of Comey in May.
The president’s defenders say that, as the nation’s top law enforcement official, he cannot obstruct justice by firing the head of the FBI.
However, in past administrations that term has been used to describe the attorney general, not the president.
When Trump took the podium, he did not mention or allude to any of his problems with the bureau, instead focusing on the police and other law enforcement officers present.
‘‘We as a country must do a better job showing our police officers our respect and gratitude that you have earned, and we will do that,’’ he said.
Police departments, Trump said, ‘‘are totally underappreciated, except by me’’. He repeated his call to prevent terrorism by changing immigration policies.