Trump group challenges hand-over of emails

An organization that was part of President Donald Trump’s transition team claimed Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller improperly obtained a trove of transition emails as part of the inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 election and other matters.

The batch of emails totaling thousands of pages of communications was improperly provided to Mueller by the federal General Services Administration, the organization claimed in a letter delivered to congressional investigators.

“This morning we sent a letter to Congress concerning the unauthorized sharing of private and transition emails with the Mueller team,” lawyer Kory Langhofer said in an interview.

Details of the letter and the allegations from the transition organ known as Trump for America were first reported by Reuters.

The letter from Langhofer, who was counsel to Trump for America, alleged that career employees of the GSA improperly provided privileged communications to investigators working for Mueller. The material included tens of thousands of emails, the organization alleged.

Trump for America alleges that Mueller acquired private records without a warrant or subpoena.

Transition documents are private property, not government records, the organization contends. The letter invokes federal law and decades of precedent to argue that Mueller overstepped.

The Trump transition alleges that the handover was done by “career staff at the General Services Administration” and suggested that those employees may have had political motives.

The complaint on behalf of the Trump transition team suggests that the organization is preparing to challenge the origin of material that could shed light on contacts and discussions involving former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and others.