Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly combing through President Donald Trump’s tweets for evidence that the president has obstructed the Russia investigation.
Investigators are examining “negative statements” the president has made – both online and off – about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and fired FBI Director James Comey in an effort to piece together private remarks made to both men as evidence of obstruction. Legal experts tell the New York Times that investigators will seek out patterns of wrongdoing in lieu of concrete evidence of illegal behavior.
“There’s rarely evidence that someone sits down and says, ‘I intend to commit a crime,’ so any type of investigation hangs on using additional evidence to build a narrative arc that hangs together,” Duke law professor Samuel Buell told the paper. “That’s why a prosecutor wants more pieces of evidence. You need to lock down the argument.”
Team Mueller is eager to ask President Trump about said tweet in a sit-down interview, the terms and conditions of which are still in the process of being negotiated. “They also want to know about a January episode in the Oval Office in which Mr. Trump asked the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, about reports that Mr. McGahn told investigators about the president’s efforts to fire Mr. Mueller himself last year,” reported the New York Times.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, believes Mueller’s latest fishing expedition is utter nonsense. “If you’re going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public,” said Giuliani.
As Breitbart News reported, Sessions is a key witness in Mueller’s inquiry into whether the president has obstructed the Russia probe. In a March 2017 meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump asked the embattled attorney general to unrecuse himself from the Russian collusion investigation. Sessions declined to do so.
The New York Times reported:
The confrontation, which has not been previously reported, is being investigated by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as are the president’s public and private attacks on Mr. Sessions and efforts to get him to resign. Mr. Trump dwelled on the recusal for months, according to confidants and current and former administration officials who described his behavior toward the attorney general.
During the course of the investigation, White House aides have undergone a series of interviews conducted by Mueller team members, many grilled about President Trump’s fraught relationship with Sessions. Mueller wants to know if pressure stemming from the White House led to Sessions’ influencing the Russia probe. Investigators want President Trump to answer eight questions about his interactions with the former Alamaba senator.
President Trump, who terminated Comey from his post last May, told lawmakers Mr. Trump requested in private the FBI halt its investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — a claim the president flatly denies.
Clinton-era special counsel Kenneth Starr has said Donald Trump’s interactions with Comey do not suggest any wrongdoing on the president’s part. “I’ve seen nothing in … the firing of [former FBI Director] James Comey and all of the aftermath that suggest the president has obstructed justice,” Starr told the Fox News Channel in February.
President Trump has long criticized the Mueller investigation, often referring to it as a “Witch Hunt.”
“The Rigged Witch Hunt, headed by the 13 Angry Democrats (and now 4 more have been added, one who worked directly for Obama W.H.), seems intent on damaging the Republican Party’s chances in the November Election. This Democrat excuse for losing the ‘16 Election never ends!” the president tweeted last week:
The Rigged Witch Hunt, headed by the 13 Angry Democrats (and now 4 more have been added, one who worked directly for Obama W.H.), seems intent on damaging the Republican Party’s chances in the November Election. This Democrat excuse for losing the ‘16 Election never ends!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018
“No Collusion, No Obstruction – but that doesn’t matter because the 13 Angry Democrats, who are only after Republicans and totally protecting Democrats, want this Witch Hunt to drag out to the November Election. Republicans better get smart fast and expose what they are doing!” he added:
No Collusion, No Obstruction – but that doesn’t matter because the 13 Angry Democrats, who are only after Republicans and totally protecting Democrats, want this Witch Hunt to drag out to the November Election. Republicans better get smart fast and expose what they are doing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018
The special counsel’s office would not respond to the New York Times for comment.
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