Special counsel’s Trump investigation includes Manafort
Probe could widen to involve AG Sessions and his top deputy
WASHINGTON — The special counsel investigating possible ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia’s government has taken over a separate criminal probe involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and may expand his inquiry to investigate the roles of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
The Justice Department’ s criminal investigation into Mr. Manafort, who was forced to resign as Trump campaign chairman in August amid questions over his business dealings years ago in Ukraine, predated the 2016 election and the counter intelligence probe that in July began investigating possible collusion between Moscow and associates of Mr. Trump.
The move to consolidate the matters, involving allegations of misuse of Ukrainian government funds, indicates that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is assuming a broad mandate in his new role running the sensational investigation. The expansiveness of Mr. Mueller’s investigation was described to the AP, but no one familiar with the matter has been willing to discuss it on the record because it is just getting underway and revealing details could complicate its progress.
In an interview separately Friday with the AP, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein acknowledged that Mr. Mueller could expand his inquiry to include Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ and Mr. Rosenstein’s own roles in the decision to fire Mr. Comey, who was investigating the Trump campaign.
Mr. Rosenstein, who appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel to take over the investigation, wrote the memorandum intended to justify Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Comey. Mr. Sessions met with Mr. Trump and Mr. Rosenstein to discuss Mr. Trump’s decision to fire him despite Mr. Sessions’ pledge not to become involved in the Russia case.
The AP asked Mr. Rosenstein specifically whether Mr. Mueller’s investigation could expand to include examining Mr. Sessions’ role.
“The order is pretty clear,” Mr. Rosenstein responded. “It gives
him authority for the investigation and anything arising out of that investigation, and so Director Mueller will be responsible in the first instance for determining what he believes falls into that mandate.”
Mr. Rosenstein told the AP that if he were to become a subject of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, he would recuse himself from any oversight of Mr. Mueller. Under Justice Department rules, Mr. Mueller is required to seek permission from Mr. Rosenstein to investigate additional matters other than ones already specified in the paperwork formally appointing Mr. Mueller.
“I’ve talked with Director Mueller about this,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “He’s going to make the appropriate decisions, and if anything that Idid winds up being relevant to his investigation then, as Director Mueller and I discussed, if there’s a need from me to recuse, I will.”
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller, declined to comment on the scope of the investigation.
Mr. Mueller, who spent 12 years as FBI director and served under Republican and Democratic presidents, was appointed as special counsel following the May 9 firing of Mr. Comey, who is to testify for the first time next week before the Senate.
The scope of Mr. Comey’s testimony is not clear, though Mr. Mueller is permitting him to speak publicly,an associate told the AP.
Mr. Mueller’s investigation could include a look at the circumstances of Mr. Comey’s firing, especially since Mr. Trump has said publicly that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he made the move.
It is possible that the Trump White House could try to raise executive privilege claims in arguing that any conversations with the president could not be discussed publicly. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway declined to rule out such a move.
“The president will make that decision,” Ms. Conway told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday when asked if Mr. Trump would try to block Mr. Comey’s testimony.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the committee hearing was just set and “it has to be reviewed.” He said he has not discussed the matter with White House counsel, adding, “I don’t know how they’re going to respond.”
Mr. Mueller’s assignment, detailed in a one-page order signedby Mr. Rosenstein, covers the federal investigation into possible links or coordination between Russia and associates of the Trump campaign but also “any matters that arose or may arise directly” from the probe. It would also extend to any allegations of perjury, witness intimidation or obstruction of justice uncovered during the courseof the investigation.
As Mr. Mueller’s investigation begins, members of Congress are intensely interested inits direction and scope.
Last month, House Democrats called for congressional investigations into whether Mr. Sessions violated his pledge to recuse himself from matters related to investigations into Trump associates. They also asked the Justice Department to investigate Mr. Sessions’ role in Mr. Comey’s firing and to lay out how that investigation would proceed.
Mr. Sessions, a close Trump adviser, withdrew from the Russia investigation in March after acknowledging two previously undisclosed contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak last summer and fall.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, DVt., and Al Franken, DMinn., released a letter urging the FBI to investigate whether Mr. Sessions had falsely testified under oath when he said at his January confirmation hearing that he hadn’t had any contacts with Russia.
The Justice Department began looking at Mr. Manafort’s work in Ukraine around the beginning of 2014, as Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, was toppled amid protests of alleged corruption and Russian influence. Business records obtained by the AP show Mr. Manafort’s political consulting firm began working as early as 2004 for clients that variously included a political boss in Mr. Yanukovych’s party, a Ukrainian oligarch and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian businessman and longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A special counsel, by design, is constrained by the terms of his appointment to avoid boundless and perpetually open-ended investigations. In this case, though, Mr. Mueller’s mandate appears fairly broad, said Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor and criminal law professor at Duke University.