Praise leaks. The Washington Post reports that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are investigating President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. The investigators have also been looking for possible evidence of financial crimes among Trump associates. If Trump did anything shady, he’s probably getting very nervous right about now.
This should all get interesting pretty quickly. Perhaps Trump will fire Mueller first, or maybe Trump will try and pardon himself, or he could just pull a Sarah Palin and just walk away from the job.
Today’s news about Trump himself being targeted is part of the broader FBI effort to untangle the web of ties linking Trump and his organization(s) to Russia.
From the Washington Post’s big story today by Devlin Barrett, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz:
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 Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on 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 possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.
Trump had received private assurances from then-FBI Director James B. 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, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’s recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week. The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy, and it is unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI.
FBI Director Robert Mueller pauses after making an opening statement at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S. on June 19, 2013.
The NSA told reporters it will “fully cooperate with the special counsel” and offered no further comment. The office of the director of national intelligence and Ledgett declined to comment.
Special counsel is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, officials say [WaPo]
PHOTO, TOP: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a statement about the shooting at a Congressional Republicans baseball practice from the White House in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque