Trump under investigation
> Special counsel looking at efforts to obstruct justice
WASHINGTON: The special counsel overseeing the probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US election is looking at whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct justice, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials.
In a pivotal shift in the investigation that has riveted Americans like no other in decades, senior intelligence officials have agreed to be interviewed by investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller, the Post said.
It quoted five people briefed on the requests and said those who have agreed to be interviewed are director of national intelligence Daniel Coats, National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers and his recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett.
The interviews could come as early as this week, it said.
The shift towards investigating the US president began days after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director on May 9, the Post said.
The stated focus has been Russia’s alleged efforts to tilt last November’s presidential election Trump’s way, and whether the winner’s campaign was involved in any way.
Mueller, himself a widely respected former head of the FBI, has now taken up the angle of possible efforts by Trump to obstruct justice in the investigation, the Post said.
Quoting officials, the newspaper said one event of interest to Mueller is an exchange on March 22, when Coats told associates that Trump had asked him to intervene with Comey to get him to back off the focus on Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn as part of the FBI probe of the Russia affair.
A few days after the March 22 meeting, Trump spoke separately with Coats and Rogers and asked them to issue public statements to the effect that there was no evidence of coordination between his campaign and Russia.
The Post said both men refused Trump’s request.
Trump’s personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz called the leak “outrageous and illegal” but did not deny the story. – AFP