GRAND JURY PROBES TRUMP CASE
Mueller subpoenas info on Junior’s Russia meet
SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury and issued subpoenas — clear signs the investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and Moscow’s ties to the Trump campaign is heating up.
The move means that Mueller, who oversees the federal probe, “believes he will need to subpoena records and take testimony from witnesses,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story on Thursday.
Grand juries have the power to subpoena documents, get testimony under oath and seek indictments if there is evidence of a crime.
Mueller has already taken advantage of the added firepower.
The jury has issued subpoenas relating to a secret meeting held at Trump Tower last year between Trump campaign associates, including his son, and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.
President Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion with Moscow took place.
Lawyers for the President said they were unaware of the existence of a grand jury.
“With respect to the news of the federal grand jury, I have no reason to believe that the President is under investigation,” defense attorney John Dowd told The Associated Press.
Ty Cobb, special counsel to the President, said he wasn’t aware of the grand jury development either.
“Grand jury matters are typically secret,” Cobb said. “The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly . ... The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller.”
Federal prosecutors have already been using at least one grand jury in Virginia for the criminal investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.
Flynn resigned in February after lying to Vice President Pence about a conversation with a Russian ambassador.
The second grand jury, which The Journal says began its work “in recent weeks,” is focusing on a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer, according to Reuters.
An email Trump Jr. tweeted last month showed he had been explicitly told the meeting was “part of Russia and its government’s support” for the Trump campaign.
The Kremlin has denied working with Trump — and has shrugged off the conclusion by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia was behind campaign cyberattacks against Democrats. But collusion could be the least of Trump’s worries. According to several reports, Mueller’s team has widened its scope to include possible financial crimes and business deals made by Trump and his associates.
Mueller, a former federal prosecutor and one-time head of the FBI, was appointed special counsel in May by the Justice Department following Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
His intensifying inquiries have clearly gotten under Trump’s skin.
The President has recently started asking his White House team about his pardoning powers, and he asserted in a tweet that he “has the complete power to pardon.”
In July, Trump explicitly warned Mueller in a New York Times interview not to start digging into his family’s business empire.
A day later, Bloomberg Politics revealed investigators are looking into several Trump business deals, some of which came years before his presidential campaign began. Those include the Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s ties to Russian investors on a New York City development and Trump’s 2008 sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch.
“The Russia story is a total fabrication,” Trump told an adoring crowd of supporters at a campaign rally in West Virginia on Thursday.
The grand jury news broke the same day clearly anxious senators introduced a pair of bipartisan bills to protect Mueller in case Trump tries to fire him. One bill, introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), would force the Justice Department officials who would be tasked with firing Mueller to make their case before a judicial panel before doing so.
The second bill, from Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), would allow Mueller to challenge a potential firing before a panel of three federal judges. “I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one, which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in November deserve and what all Americans who want a better future want and deserve,” Trump said to cheers at his West Virginia rally.