ON TWIT’S TRAIL
Mueller eyeing Prez posts for obstruction
President Trump's preferred method of venting his frustrations could land him in hot water.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is reviewing Trump's tweets as he pursues an investigation into whether the President has tried to interfere with the federal Russian probe, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Trump often tweets about Mueller's investigation, referring to it as a “witch hunt” and labeling the team of investigators as the “12 angry Democrats.”
The President has also used the platform to attack his own Department of Justice officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sessions recused himself from the probe in March 2017 to avoid any conflicts of interest due to his associations with the Trump campaign.
Trump's lawyer, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, brushed off the idea that Trump's disparaging social media messages could be considered obstruction.
“If you're going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public,” Giuliani told the paper.
Other members of the Trump legal team told The Times that they don't believe Mueller is zeroing in on one particular message or missive, but instead looking at the tweets as part of a larger pattern of behavior. Sessions' recusal, coupled with Trump's firing of thenFBI Director James Comey, led to the appointment of Mueller — and incurred Trump's wrath. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether anyone on Trump's campaign coordinated with the Kremlin. Trump has publicly criticized Sessions repeatedly since the attorney general stepped away from the investigation.
Last summer, he said had he known Sessions, who was an early Trump supporter and a campaign surrogate as a senator from Alabama, would recuse himself he never would have appointed him.
Trump called Sessions' decision "very unfair to the President."
This past May, Trump tweeted that he “wished” he picked someone else for the high profile gig.
He has also denied his campaign colluded with the Kremlin to undermine Democrat Hillary Clinton's candidacy and denied he obstructed justice.