Trump’s team to press Mueller
WASHINGTON — White House lawyers are expected to meet with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office late this week seeking good news: that his sprawling investigation’s focus on President Donald Trump will soon end and their client will be cleared.
But people familiar with the probe say that such assurances are unlikely and that the meeting could trigger a new, more contentious phase between the special counsel and a frustrated president, according to administration officials and advisers close to Trump.
People with knowledge of the investigation said it could last at least another year — pointing to ongoing cooperation from witnesses like former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, as well as a possible trial of two former Trump campaign officials. The special counsel’s office has continued to request new documents related to the campaign and members of Mueller’s team have told others they expect to be working through much of 2018, at the minimum. The dynamic threatens to intensify the already inflamed political atmosphere enveloping the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. Even as White House lawyers have pledged to cooperate with Mueller, Trump and his allies have accused the Justice Department and FBI of bias and overreach.
White House lawyers have told the president he could be exonerated as early as the beginning of the year, after previously reassuring him that he would be cleared by Thanksgiving and Christmas, as The Washington Post previously reported. They have stated publicly that all White House interviews are over and that Mueller’s team is no longer seeking White House documents.
In the meeting this week, they plan to ask Mueller’s investigators if they need any more information before reaching a conclusion that the probe as related to Trump is complete, according to a person familiar with the Trump team’s plan who requested anonymity to describe private conversations.
The question that White House lawyers will pose to the special counsel’s office, according to the person: “You’re had all these witnesses, all these records. Is there anything else you need from the White House?”
Until now, Trump’s legal team has repeatedly pledged cooperation with Mueller’s office. A White House spokesman said there was no plan to change the strategy.
Trump’s legal team has reassured him that it sees no evidence of collusion or obstruction in the records that it turned over, White House advisers said. While the lawyers have told the president that they expect the investigative team will have to
continue their work related to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort deep into next year, as well as possibly Flynn, they said they believe Mueller should be close to wrapping up their focus on the current White House.