Tag: potential obstruction of justice

House Intel to probe whether lawyers for Trump family interfered in investigation

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether attorneys representing both President Trump and his family obstructed the panel’s investigation into Russian interference by shaping or editing false testimony.

Documents show that the panel, led by Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), sent requests for documents and testimony from the president’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow and three others earlier this year in connection with the investigation into whether they edited or shaped former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s 2017 false statements to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow proposal.

The committee is particularly interested in hearing from Sekulow; Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr.‘s attorney; Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s top lawyer; and Abbe Lowell, Ivanka Trump‘s attorney. 

View the complete May 14 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Fox News Judge Napolitano: Barr Misled Congress On Mueller Concerns

Fox News judicial analyst Judge Napolitano on Wednesday accused Attorney General Bill Barr of misleading the House of Representatives when he claimed to be unaware of special counsel Robert Mueller’s concerns with his four-page summary of the Russia investigation — after having received a letter from Mueller explicitly stating those concerns.

Barr was asked about his testimony before the House on Wednesday by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who demanded to know why the attorney general said he was unaware of concerns from special counsel Mueller’s team despite having spoken with Mueller about his concerns.

“I answered a question,” Barr told Leahy. “And the question was related to unidentified members who were expressing frustration over the accuracy relating to findings. I don’t know what that refers to at all. I talked directly to Bob Mueller, not members of his team.”

View the complete May 1 article by Elizabeth Preza on the National Memo website here.

Barr puts Trump’s actions in best light, despite ‘substantial evidence’ of obstruction cited by Mueller

It was one of the most dramatic cases of potential obstruction of justice laid out by federal investigators: President Trump directing the top White House lawyer to seek the removal of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — and then later pushing him to deny the episode.

But Attorney General William P. Barr on Wednesday played down evidence that Trump sought to fire the head of the investigation bearing down on him, emphasizing in testimony before a Senate committee that the president may have had valid reasons for his actions.

It was a surprise recasting of the account of then-White House counsel Donald McGahn, who told investigators that Trump called him twice in June 2017 at home, pressuring him to intervene with the Justice Department to try to get Mueller removed. McGahn told federal investigators that he planned to resign rather than comply. And he said he later refused a demand by Trump that he write a letter denying news accounts of the episode.

View the complete May 1 article by Carol D. Leonnig on The Washington Post here.

Dems unleash sprawling probe of Trump family, administration

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee unleashed a sprawling probe of President Trump‘s family, campaign, business and administration on Monday that includes more than 80 requests for documents.

The investigation under Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) will focus on three key areas: obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power. Nadler rolled out the expansive investigation less than a week after the president’s former attorney Michael Cohen delivered explosive public testimony against him on Capitol Hill.

Democrats will be looking at those involved in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin, the Trump Organization’s plans to build a Trump property in Moscow and a scheme to pay off two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump before the 2016 election.<

Trump admits he was thinking about the Russia investigation when he appointed controversial acting AG

Credit: AP Photo, Susan Walsh

When asked his thoughts on the attorney general situation, Trump brought up Robert Mueller’s investigation totally unprompted.

When President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions a day after the midterm elections and replaced him with former U.S. attorney and DOJ chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, there was an unspoken but obvious reason for his decision. It was telegraphed by Whitaker’s long history of opposing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia, calling it a “witch hunt” and warning that any probe into the Trump family finances was a “red line.”

So it was remarkable when Trump, in a Thursday interview with the right-wing Daily Caller, came out and said it directly.

“Could you tell us where your thinking is currently on the attorney general position?” asked Daily Caller reporters Saagar Enjeti and Benny Johnson.

View the complete November 15 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet.org website here.

Trump lawyer says president knew Flynn had given FBI the same account he gave to vice president

The following article by Carol D. Leonnig, John Wagner and Ellen Nakashima was posted on the Washington Post website December 3, 2017:

President Trump’s denials about former national security adviser Michael Flynn are raising new questions about obstruction of justice. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump’s personal lawyer said Sunday that the president knew in late January that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had probably given FBI agents the same inaccurate account he provided to Vice President Pence about a call with the Russian ambassador.

Trump lawyer John Dowd said the information was passed to Trump by White House counsel Donald McGahn, who had been warned about Flynn’s statement to the vice president by a senior Justice Department official. The vice president said publicly at the time that Flynn had told him he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian diplomat — a statement disproved by a U.S. intelligence intercept of a phone call between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Continue reading “Trump lawyer says president knew Flynn had given FBI the same account he gave to vice president”