Tag: Mueller investigation

House Judiciary releases McGahn testimony on Trump

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Former White House counsel Don McGahn confirmed to congressional investigators a key account in ex-special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that former President Trump directed him to try to get Mueller removed, according to a transcript of his closed-door testimony released Wednesday. 

The 241-page transcript follows a long fought-for interview the House Judiciary Committee finally secured with McGahn on Friday after the Trump White House challenged a subpoena seeking his testimony during Trump’s first impeachment investigation. The transcript shows that the interview yielded little new information but confirmed some of the details of Mueller’s lengthy report on his 22-month investigation that concluded in March 2018 and with which McGahn cooperated.

Trump has persistently denied any effort to fire Mueller amid the long inquiry, which probed allegations that members of Trump’s team had colluded with Russian figures during his 2016 presidential campaign. Yet in Friday’s interview, McGahn directly disputed Trump’s claims, repeatedly laying out Trump’s consideration of firing Mueller.  Continue reading.

Don McGahn tells House panel about Trump’s bid to undermine Mueller probe

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Former White House counsel Donald McGahn detailed for the House Judiciary Committee on Friday how former president Donald Trump attempted to stymie a federal probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election — bombshell revelations that might once have fueled additional impeachment charges, were they not already public and had it not taken more than two years for Democrats to secure his testimony.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who led the Democrats’ exhaustive campaign to compel McGahn’s testimony, emerged from the meeting after nearly six hours but refused to discuss the closed-door interview. He said only that the terms of McGahn’s appearance limited its focus to the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose two-year Russia investigation overshadowed much of Trump’s presidency.

In a written statement Friday evening, Nadler offered that McGahn “testified at length to an extremely dangerous period in our nation’s history — in which President Trump, increasingly unhinged and fearful of his own liability, attempted to obstruct the Mueller investigation at every turn.” McGahn, Nadler asserted, was “clearly distressed” by Trump’s repeated refusal to heed his legal advice and “shed new light on several troubling events.” Continue reading.

Newly unredacted Mueller docs expose damning details of Manafort’s lies about meetings with Kremlin agents

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Disgraced former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort infamously blew up his plea agreement with prosecutors by repeatedly lying to them even after pledging full cooperation in their probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

However, the details of Manafort’s lies to prosecutors have long remained a secret — until Monday, that is, when Judge Amy Berman Jackson unsealed more lightly redacted documents showing the exact nature of Manafort’s deceptions.

In short, Manafort repeatedly lied to investigators about his dealings with Ukrainian national Konstantin Kilimnik, who was sanctioned earlier this year for giving Manafort-provided internal Trump campaign polling data to Russian intelligence services. Continue reading.

Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn expected to answer House committee questions ‘as soon as possible’

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Former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn is expected to answer questions “as soon as possible” in a closed session with House lawmakers about former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, according to an agreement outlined in court filings Wednesday night.

McGahn will appear before the House Judiciary Committee after House Democrats sued to enforce a 2019 subpoena for his testimony about whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The agreement, negotiated by President Biden’s Justice Department and House lawyers, is intended to end the long-running litigation over McGahn’s testimony that the Trump administration had blocked. But it leaves unresolved the question of whether a congressional committee can compel the testimony of a close presidential adviser. Continue reading.

Judge orders release of Trump obstruction memo, accuses Barr of deception

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A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release a March 2019 legal memo clearing former President Trump of potential obstruction of justice charges following the Mueller investigation, with the judge accusing former Attorney General William Barr and agency lawyers of deceiving the public.

District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Monday ordered the DOJ to release the legal memo within two weeks in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW).

The DOJ had argued in court that the full memo — portions of which have already been released — should be withheld because it falls under exceptions to the public records law for attorney-client privilege and deliberative government decisionmaking. Continue reading.

Flynn, Bannon, Manafort, Ivanka: Private Emails From Inside The Mueller Investigation

“We actually sat at dinner together,” Flynn said of his meal with Vladimir Putin.

Five days before Donald Trump was sworn in as president in January 2017, his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, sent an email to the person Trump had chosen as deputy national security adviser.

“I have some important information I want to share that I picked up on my travels over the last month,” Manafort wrote to KT McFarland.

Manafort’s ties to foreign leaders had already attracted the scrutiny of the FBI, and McFarland wasn’t sure if she should take him up on his offer. So she sent an email to her boss, Michael Flynn. Continue reading.

Barr appoints special counsel in Russia probe investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, granting him authority to complete the work without being easily fired.

Barr told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal regulations that governed special counsel Robert Mueller in the original Russia probe. He said Durham’s investigation has been narrowing to focus more on the conduct of FBI agents who worked on the Russia investigation, known by the code name of Crossfire Hurricane.

Under the regulations, a special counsel can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty or conflict of interest. An attorney general must document such reasons in writing. Continue reading.

Why we still don’t know if Trump is a Russian asset

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As chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff is attempting to meet the Supreme Court’s guidelines for gaining access to Donald Trump’s financial records. In a memorandum to committee members on counterintelligence risks posed by the president’s financial ties, he included this footnote:

Based on the Committee’s review, it does not appear that Special Counsel Mueller issued any grand jury subpoenas to obtain the President’s financial records. The Committee also has reason to believe, based on its oversight work, that the FBI Counterintelligence Division has not investigated counterintelligence risks arising from President Trump’s foreign financial ties.

That points to a question Schiff has been asking since the Mueller probe was completed in March, 2019.  Here’s how he explained it to the Washington Post‘s Philip Bump a few weeks after Mueller wrapped up his work : Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia, Ex-Officials Say

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The former deputy attorney general maneuvered to keep investigators from completing an inquiry into whether the president’s personal and financial links to Russia posed a national security threat.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of President Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia.

The special counsel who finished the investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, secured three dozen indictments and convictions of some top Trump advisers, and he produced a report that outlined Russia’s wide-ranging operations to help get Mr. Trump elected and the president’s efforts to impede the inquiry.

But law enforcement officials never fully investigated Mr. Trump’s own relationship with Russia, even though some career F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators thought his ties posed such a national security threat that they took the extraordinary step of opening an inquiry into them. Within days, the former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere. Continue reading.

Trump commutes Roger Stone’s sentence

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone after the former campaign adviser was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in connection with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The decision capped a months-long saga that has roiled the Justice Department and divided some of the president’s advisers. Stone was set to report to prison July 14, but his allies had lobbied for a pardon or a commutation, citing his risk of contracting coronavirus while in jail.

The move Friday did not come as a particular surprise, as Trump had at various points in recent months signaled he was leaning toward intervening in Stone’s case. Trump told reporters he was considering a commutation or pardon for Stone as the date he was scheduled to report to prison loomed. Continue reading.