Tag: Russia investigation

Trump Jr. and McGahn didn’t testify before Mueller grand jury during Russia probe — and a federal judge wants to know why

AlterNet logoDuring the Russia investigation, former special counsel Robert Mueller sought testimony from a long list of people. But according to a court filing on Sunday, two people who Mueller did not force to testify before a grand jury were Donald Trump Jr. and former White House Counsel Don McGahn. And U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wants to know why.

The court filing on Sunday, according to The Week, was in response to a ruling Howell made on Thursday — when Howell asserted that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was withholding too much information from the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York. The House Judiciary Committee, The Week’s Peter Weber reports, has been “wrangling” with DOJ over the evidence that Mueller obtained during his lengthy investigation.

On Thursday, Howell wrote that it was unclear why Mueller didn’t force Trump Jr. or McGahn to testify. “The special counsel’s reasons remain unknown,” Howell explained. “The reason is not that the individuals were insignificant to the investigation. To the contrary, both of the non-testifying individuals named in paragraph four figured in key events examined in the Mueller Report. Assessment of these choices by the special counsel is a matter for others.”

View the complete October 22 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Review of Russia Inquiry Grows as F.B.I. Witnesses Are Questioned

New York Times logoThe review, led by the prosecutor John Durham, has focused on former investigators who are frequent targets of President Trump.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review.

The prosecutors, led by John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, have interviewed about two dozen former and current F.B.I. officials, the people said. Two former senior F.B.I. agents are assisting with the review, the people said. Continue reading “Review of Russia Inquiry Grows as F.B.I. Witnesses Are Questioned”

GOP conspiracy buff Devin Nunes claims with no evidence that Democrats are conspiring with Mueller to create an anti-Trump ‘narrative’

AlterNet logoRep. Devin Nunes of California has never been shy about promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and the Republican congressman has come up with one involving House Democrats and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller: that the two are joining forces to create a “narrative” about President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation.

Mueller is scheduled to appear before two Democrat-led committees next week on Wednesday, July 24. Previously, Mueller’s testimony was scheduled for July 17, but it was postponed a week in order to give House members more time to ask him questions. And Nunes, during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News on Monday night, insisted that Mueller and Democrats are conspiring against the president.

“There’s got to be a reason for it,” the congressman told Hannity.

View the complete July 16 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet logo here.

Justice Dept. Watchdog Is Preparing to Deliver Verdict on the Russia Investigation

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Inside a London office building in early June, three investigators for the Justice Department’s inspector general took a crucial step toward clearing the political fallout from the Russia investigation: They spent two days interviewing Christopher Steele, the former British spy whose now-infamous dossier of purported links between Trump associates and Russia ended up in the hands of the F.B.I. ahead of the 2016 election.

The investigators pored over Mr. Steele’s old memos and his contemporaneous notes from meetings with F.B.I. agents in the fall of 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation. They asked Mr. Steele to explain in detail how he had validated his sources inside Russia, how he communicated with them, and how he decided which of their claims to include in his reports. They spoke at length about Mr. Steele’s work with the F.B.I. on other Russia-related investigations and his contacts with a senior Justice Department official.

The interview was a key step in the investigation by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, into the facts underlying a bitter partisan feud: Did F.B.I. officials do anything wrong in 2016 when they sought to understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia — including how they used information from Mr. Steele?

View the complete July 9 article by Adam Goldman, Charlie Savage and Matthew Rosenberg on The New York Times website here.

Mueller: Charging president with a crime was ‘not an option we could consider’

Special counsel Robert Mueller, in his first public comments on his two-year investigation surrounding President Trump and his campaign, said Wednesday that his office did not charge Trump with a crime because it “was not an option” under Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations.

Mueller, in a dramatic appearance at DOJ headquarters, said it would have been impossible to bring Trump to court and that his final report clearly spelled out that investigators did not conclude that the president was innocent of a crime.

“After that investigation, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said during his eight-minute address.

View the complete May 29 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

How a legal dispute between Mueller and Barr drove the end of the special counsel’s probe

For nearly two years, the public, Congress and the White House waited to learn if special counsel Robert S. Mueller III would find that President Trump had committed crimes. When the answer was finally revealed, it turned out Mueller didn’t think that was his job at all.

The special counsel ended his investigation last month, pointedly choosing not to reach a conclusion about whether the president had obstructed justice.

In a report of its findings, Mueller’s team said that choice was driven in large part by a long-standing legal opinion at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that a sitting president should not be indicted, even if the charges remained sealed.

View the complete April 20 article by Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

More information from Mueller won’t shift public opinions, poll finds

The vast majority of Americans say their opinions of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s findings are unlikely to change after more information from his investigation is released.

In a Hill-HarrisX survey of registered voters, an overwhelming 72 percent said that more information from Mueller’s probe into Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign and Russian interference in the election would be unlikely to make them re-think their beliefs. Only 28 percent said that their opinions could shift.

The results come amid a bruising battle in Washington over the release of Mueller’s full report.

View the complete April 10 article on The Hill website here.

Mueller focus shifts to Rick Gates

The focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is about to shift to Richard Gates.

Gates, Paul Manafort’s ex-business partner and President Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, has been quietly cooperating with federal prosecutors for over a year on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He’s also a cooperating witness to other undisclosed federal probes.

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

House votes for Mueller report to be made public

The House passed a resolution Thursday calling on Justice Department (DOJ) officials to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated report about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Lawmakers unanimously passed the nonbinding resolution in a 420-0 vote.

Four Republicans — Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Justin Amash (Mich.) — voted present.

View the complete March 14 article by Juliegrace Brufke and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Here’s What Happens When Robert Mueller Is Done

Will Mueller’s report be made public? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

WASHINGTON — This is not a story about when special counsel Robert Mueller will finish his investigation, or when he’ll submit his final report. Speculation has floated for weeks that he’s close to finishing, but no one knows for sure. This is about what will happen once he’s done and what happens after Mueller and his team of prosecutors disband.

The big picture: When the investigation is over, Mueller will submit a report to Attorney General Bill Barr, and Barr will submit a report of his own to Congress. Neither report must be public, but both can be. Pending prosecutions and investigations, such as the criminal case against longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, will continue; Mueller’s office has been partnering with other federal prosecutors who can take over. Mueller will no longer be the most watched man in America, and he could return to the lucrative job he left in private practice — or at least go to an Apple Store or the airport without having his picture taken. Continue reading “Here’s What Happens When Robert Mueller Is Done”