Report: Trump is also focus of Mueller inquiry
Comey’s firing added to Russia investigation
The Justice Department’s special counsel investigating Russia's meddling in the presidential election is now also examining whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, reports say.
Robert Mueller is looking into whether Trump is guilty of a federal crime since taking office, The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening.
WASHINGTON — The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’ s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
The move by special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump’s own conduct marks a turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on alleged Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.
Trump had received private assurances from former FBI Director James Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing.
Five people briefed on the requests, who spoke on condition of anonymity because theywere not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Dan Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’ recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as thisweek.
The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy and it’s unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI.
The NSA said in a statement that it will “fully cooperate with the special counsel,” and declined to comment further. The office of Director of National Intelligence and Ledgett declined to comment.
The White House refers all questions about the Russia investigation to Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
“The FBI leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Kasowitz.
The officials said Coats, Rogers and Ledgett would appear voluntarily, though it remains unclear whether they will describe in full their conversations with Trump and other top officials, or will be directed by the White House to invoke executive privilege. It is doubtful the White House could use executive privilege to try to block them from speaking to Mueller’s investigators. Experts point out that the Supreme Court ruled during the Watergate scandal that officials cannot use privilege to withhold evidence in criminal prosecutions.
The obstruction of justice investigation into the president began days after Comey was fired May 9, according to people familiar with the matter. Mueller’s office has now taken up that work, and the preliminary interviews scheduled with intelligence officials indicate his team is pursuing potential witnesses inside and outside the government.
The interviews suggest Mueller sees the attempted obstruction of justice question as more than just a “he said, he said” dispute between the president and the fired FBI director, an official said.
Probing the president for possible crimes is complicated, even if convincing evidence of a crime is found. The Justice Department has long held that it would not be appropriate to indict a sitting president. Instead, experts say the onus would be on Congress to review any findings of criminal misconduct and then decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Comey confirmed publicly in congressional testimony on March 20 that the bureau was investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Comey’s statement before the House Intelligence Committee upset Trump, who has repeatedly denied that any coordination with the Russians took place. Trump had wanted Comey to disclose publicly that he wasn’t personally under investigation but the FBI director refused to do so.
Soon after, Trump spoke to Coats and Rogers about the Russia investigation.
Officials said one of the exchanges of potential interest to Mueller took place on March 22, less than a week after Coats was confirmed by the Senate to serve as the nation’s top intelligence official.
Coats was attending a briefing at the White House together with officials from several other government agencies. Whenthe briefing ended, as The Post previously reported, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Coats told associates that Trump had asked him if he could intervene with Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. Coats later told lawmakers that he never felt pressured to intervene.
A day or two after the March 22 meeting, Trump telephoned Coats and Rogers to separately ask them to issue public statements denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian government.
Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the president’s requests, officials said.
It is unclear whether Ledgett had direct contact with Trump or other top officials about the Russia probe, but he wrote an internal NSA memo documenting the president’s phone call with Rogers, according to officials.