US President Donald Trump is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports. After Comey's ouster, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named Mueller, himself a former FBI director, as special counsel saying that "the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command". Moreover, investigators are now "looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates", according to the report.
Mueller is leading the Russian Federation probe after being appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the Department of Justice, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Comey was later sacked, with Trump acknowledging that the Russian investigation was on his mind when he chose to dismiss him.
"I'm going to acknowledge we had a meeting with the special counsel Mueller, but I'm not going to get into the contents", Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters later.
But investigators began probing Trump for obstruction of justice soon after Comey's termination.
Obstruction of justice is broadly defined: It involves any conduct in which a person willfully interferes with the administration of justice.
Police make new arrest in London Bridge attack probe
The three terrorists who carried out the attack were identified as Youssef Zaghba, Rachid Redouane and Khuram Butt . At the time of the London attacks , Butt was out on bail in a fraud case dating to October past year .
Trump has regularly turned to Twitter to blast reports about his alleged connections to Russia or the inquiries into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy, and it is unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI. They said that these three have agreed to interviews with Mueller's team.
Entous wrote that after a White House briefing on March 22 - two days after Comey publicly confirmed the investigation into Trump's team and Russia - Trump requested that everyone present leave the room except Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo (just as Trump reportedly did before he asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation).
Associates of Comey revealed an unclassified memo in which the former FBI director describes a conversation with Trump, with the president asking him to end an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A spokesman for Trump's lawyer said in a statement that "the Federal Bureau of Investigation leak regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable, and illegal", but did not dispute the accuracy of the report. He declined further comment.
"I appointed him; I stand by that decision, " he said. So it didn't sound as if Trump was trying to stop the Russian Federation investigation at that point.
Comments