USA TODAY International Edition
Trump is subject, not ‘target’ of Mueller probe
WASHINGTON – While President Trump and his 2016 campaign remain under investigation over possible links to Russia, the president’s legal team has been told Trump is not a target, officials said Wednesday.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is preparing a report on his findings, including an obstruction of justice investigation that involved Trump, said two people familiar with the process, speaking on condition of anonymity so they could discuss an ongoing investigation.
Mueller’s office has kept Trump’s legal team informed of the developments as they negotiate the president’s possible testimony, the two sources said, adding that the communication about the president’s status occurred last month.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment.
The developments, first reported by
The Washington Post, indicate Trump’s testimony has become increasingly crucial to prosecutors in their wide-ranging inquiry.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment except to say “there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russians during the election. As for the prospect of Trump’s testimony, Sanders said: “The president is working in conjunction with his legal team . ... They will make that determination.”
Trump has long maintained that he is not a target of the Russia investigation and that his campaign did not act in coordination with Russian officials.
Yet, Mueller’s team has secured cooperation agreements in the investigation with key former members of his team, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign deputy Rick Gates.
Both had been charged with lying to the FBI and have pleaded guilty.
Though Trump is a subject of the investigation as opposed to a “target,” allies of the president said he should not rest easy. “It can easily flip to being a target in the blink of an eye,” said Michael Caputo, a former senior adviser on the Trump campaign.
Indeed, legal analysts said Trump probably still faces legal risk.
Jack Sharman, a former special counsel in the Whitewater inquiry involving President Clinton, said that absent assurances from the government, “the situation remains fairly fraught.”
“If the special counsel’s staff has told the president’s lawyers that the president is only a subject of the investigation, that information is not necessarily a source of comfort to the president,” he said. “Although it is always better to be a subject than a target ... the ‘subject’ tag is both a noman’s land and a road sign.”
“The ‘subject’ tag is both a no-man’s land and a road sign.”
Jack Sharman