The Investigation of Donald Trump
Report: Trump is particularly disturbed that Mueller can dig through his tax returns
Eliza Relman,Business Insider 20 hours ago
https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/k1...f3ec1b73ec845d
http://static2.businessinsider.com/i...n-donation.jpg
Robert Mueller(Special counsel Robert Mueller. President Donald Trump's outside legal team is reportedly evaluating potential conflicts of interest among Mueller and his team of attorneys, in an effort to control the independent investigation.Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is incensed at reports that Robert Mueller, a former FBI director leading the independent investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, is investigating Trump's business dealings and finances, including his tax returns.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump has told aides he is particularly upset at the prospect of the investigators having access to several years of his tax returns.
Every president Since Jimmy Carter has released his tax returns, but Trump has refused, after initially promising to make them public following an IRS audit.
In a Wednesday interview with The New York Times, Trump said digging into his finances would be a "violation" of the investigation's limits.
"If you're looking at Russian collusion, the president’s tax returns would be outside that investigation," an adviser to the president told the Post.
But legal experts say Trump's financial history and business dealings are properly within the scope of the probe.
"This is Ken Starr times 1,000," a lawyer involved in the case told the Post, referring to the independent counsel who led the investigation into Bill Clinton that led to his impeachment trial in 1998. "Of course, it’s going to go into his finances."
The president has also denied having any business ties with Russia.
"They said I made money from Russia. I don't," Trump told the Times on Wednesday. "It's not my thing. I don't, I don't do that. Over the years, I've looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there eight, nine years."
Mueller's team is already investigating the finances of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, while federal prosecutors also looking into the financial dealings of Trump associates, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Trump's team of personal lawyers is engaged in an effort to control the scope of Mueller's Russia investigation, according to the Post report.
The attorneys are evaluating potential conflicts of interest among Mueller and his team and are reportedly advising the president on his power to pardon his aides, family members, and even himself in connection with the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump has publicly accused Mueller and lawyers involved in the Russia probe of having conflicts of interest due to their personal and professional ties to Democrats. At least seven of the 15 attorneys Mueller has hired have made donations to Democratic politicians.
During his Wednesday interview with the Times, Trump escalated his criticism of his Justice Department, claiming that he would not have hired Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. He also suggested a left-leaning bias from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The spokesman for Trump's legal team, Mark Corallo, resigned on Thursday after reportedly objecting to public criticism of Mueller, the Post wrote.
Business Insider LINK
Mueller indicts 12 Russian intel officers for hacking Democrats
Mueller indicts 12 Russian intel officers for hacking Democrats originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A federal grand jury on Friday returned a new indictment against a dozen Russians as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The charges come just days before President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and on the same day that Trump, on a trip to the United Kingdom, again called the investigation a "witch hunt."
The indictment targets 12 Russian intelligence officers for engaging in a sustained effort to hack networks of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. All 12 are members of the GRU, Russia's intelligence service, according to the court filing.
In announcing the indictment Friday, Deputy Attorney General described how the Russian GRU officials began a “spearphishing” campaign in 2016 against volunteers and employees of Clinton’s campaign, including her campaign chairman. Russians’ spearphishing techniques also earned them access to networks of the DCCC and DNC, where they were able to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor the computer activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of malicious files to steal passwords and maintain access to the networks.
Rosenstein described how "One GRU unit worked to steal information, while another unit worked to disseminate stolen information."
"Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious. There will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us," Rosenstein said. "The blame for election interference belongs to the criminals who committed election interference."
PHOTO: John Podesta, chair of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, walks off stage after delivering a speech on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE)
Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, whose email account was hacked during the campaign, told ABC News he was heartened to see the Mueller action.
“Donald Trump calls this a witch hunt? Well, we’ve just found some witches,” Podesta said. “And they’ve been indicted.”
The new indictment raises the stakes as President Trump is preparing for a Monday summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Already, Trump has fielded questions about whether he will raise the matter of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, saying he expects Putin will continue to deny any involvement. “All I can do is say, ‘Did you?’ And, ‘Don’t do it again,’” Trump told reporters during the recent NATO summit.
Rosenstein on Friday said he briefed President Trump on these allegations earlier this week, adding that although Americans corresponded with the indicted Russians, no Americans knowingly conspired with Russian intelligence officers.
Former Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time Trump adviser and now an ABC News consultant, said Mueller wanted Trump to enter his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with this indictment in front of him.
“The unmistakable conclusion is that Bob Mueller wanted to show that this is not a debatable point,” Christie said. “There is no debate that the Russians meddled in the election.”
In just over a year since his appointment as special counsel, Mueller and his hand-picked team of prosecutors have now filed ten indictments covering 32 individuals and three businesses, earned five guilty pleas, have two criminal cases headed to trial, and sentenced one person to prison.
President Donald Trump and his supporters have repeatedly called Mueller’s investigation a “Witch Hunt”.
Friday’s indictment comes as Rosenstein faces increased scrutiny from President Trump’s backers on Capitol Hill. House Republicans have threatened to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress for what they say is the Justice Department's failure to comply in a timely manner with a subpoena for documents related to the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations.
The Department of Justice last Friday sent a letter to two House committees insisting it had fully complied.
Good Morning America LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN and MIKE LEVINE,Good Morning America 48 seconds ago
