Mueller rattles the White House

PROBE: PROSECUTOR’S INVESTIGATION MAKING WAVES

Trump on mission to remove him over Russia scandal.

Washington

For two months, Robert Mueller – the lanky, 72-year-old independent prosecutor investigating the Russia scandal – has worked in virtual silence in a nondescript government office building in downtown Washington.

But the former FBI director and no-nonsense prosecutor has deeply unnerved the White House just eight blocks away, especially President Donald Trump, over where his probe is going.

Mueller has built a team of more than a dozen investigators, including one expert in flipping Mafia witnesses, a money-laundering specialist who chased down a corrupt billionaire, and one of the country’s most experienced Supreme Court litigators.

They have been quietly interviewing witnesses and collecting documents to establish whether there are links between top aides from Trump’s campaign, members of his family, and possibly the president himself and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

After dismissing the probe for months as “ridiculous” and “fake news”, Trump laid bare his concerns this week, lashing out at the Justice Department, from Attorney-General Jeff Sessions on down the line, over the probe.

He took special aim at Mueller, making clear he intends to try to discredit the man who could bring down his presidency – and possibly eventually remove him.

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump complained that one day after he interviewed Mueller to replace fired FBI chief James Comey, Mueller instead went and took the job of investigating the Russia scandal.

“The next day he is appointed special counsel. I said, what the hell is this all about? Talk about conflicts!” Trump said.

“I have done nothing wrong. A special counsel should never have been appointed in this case."

Mueller, a former Marine wounded in fighting in Vietnam, is also a veteran of tough prosecutions, including taking on former Panama president Manuel Noriega and Mafia don John Gotti.

He took the helm of the FBI one week before the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the following years, he turned it into a potent counter-terrorism agency.

In a Saturday tweet, Trump boasted of a US president’s “complete power to pardon”. –