While the shutdown drama was playing out last week, there have been several developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's continuing probe into the Trump regime, money laundering, Russian influence, and obstruction of justice this week. First, current FBI Director Chris Wray threatened to resign last year over intense pressure from both the White House and the Justice Department to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions — at the public urging of President Donald Trump — has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge.
Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House — understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle — didn’t want that scene, so McCabe remains.
Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn about how upset Wray was about the pressure on him to fire McCabe, and McGahn told Sessions this issue wasn’t worth losing the FBI Director over, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Why it matters: Trump started his presidency by pressuring one FBI Director (before canning him), and then began pressuring another (this time wanting his deputy canned). This much meddling with the FBI for this long is not normal.
McCabe is still expected to resign later this year apparently, but that's not a guarantee. Both Trump and Jeff Sessions (not to mention a bucketful of slavering Republicans in Congress and on TV) wanted McCabe's head because he's "too close to the Clintons". They contend McCabe is the one standing between them and locking up Hillary Clinton. They may be right.
But Wray, to his credit, stood up to Sessions and Trump and their attempt to purge the FBI. It should disturb but not surprise anyone to find out that the White House and Justice Department wanted to fire anyone in the FBI who could have done the Trump regime harm.
Meanwhile, speaking of Attorney General Sessions, it seems his time under Robert Mueller's harsh spotlight has come.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel’s office as part of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the election and whether the president obstructed justice since taking office, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.
The meeting marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have interviewed a member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet.
The spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, confirmed that the interview occurred in response to questions from The New York Times.
Mr. Sessions announced in March that he had recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 election, including the Russia inquiry. The disclosure came after it was revealed that Mr. Sessions had not told Congress that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, during the campaign. Mr. Sessions was an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential run.
2018 has already seen Mueller zero in on Steve Bannon for a few words, now we know he has interviewed Jeff Sessions as well. Mueller is zeroing in on Trump by hitting Trump's inner circle with gusto. We know Mueller has talked with Trump's personal assistant Hope Hicks late last year too, and we know he's setting up for an interview with Trump himself soon. The other big key player in this is Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and I suspect we'll find out pretty soon about his fate.
Clock's ticking, and Trump knows it. Because now we know what Mueller was up to at the end of last year: holding several key interviews with intelligence directors and Trump staffers about James Comey's firing, and it all stated with Michael Flynn's big mouth a year ago.
Flynn's FBI interview on Jan. 24, 2017, set in motion an extraordinary sequence of events unparalleled for the first year of a U.S. presidency. A national security adviser was fired after 24 days on the job, an acting attorney general was fired ten days after the president took office, an FBI director was allegedly pressured by the president to let go an investigation into the ousted national security adviser, and then eventually fired.
An attorney general recused himself from a federal investigation into Russia's meddling in a U.S. election and possible collusion with the sitting president's campaign, and a special counsel was appointed.
The developments ensnared the president in an obstruction of justice inquiry, which resulted in his top intelligence and law enforcement chiefs cooperating in some form with that probe.
By the end of 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team had spoken with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, former FBI Director James Comey, and numerous members of Trump’s campaign and White House inner circle. Flynn pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI during his January 24 interview and is cooperating with the Russia investigation.
NBC News also has learned that former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who informed the White House about Flynn’s interview two days after it took place, has cooperated with the special counsel. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was allegedly asked by Trump to lean on Comey to drop his investigation, has also been interviewed, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
One person familiar with the matter described Pompeo, Coats and Rogers as "peripheral witnesses" to the Comey firing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who played a key role in Comey's departure and was a top adviser on the Trump campaign, was interviewed by Mueller last week as the investigation inches closer to Mueller's team possibly questioning the president himself.
You catch that last part? The walls are closing in and Trump knows it. Expect him to become considerably more erratic and dangerous in the coming months, especially since Mueller is now expected to interview Trump himself over James Comey's firing...and Michael Flynn's involvement in Russia.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is seeking to question President Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans.
Mueller’s interest in the events that led Trump to push out Flynn and Comey indicates that his investigation is intensifying its focus on possible efforts by the president or others to obstruct or blunt the special counsel’s probe.
Trump’s attorneys have crafted some negotiating terms for the president’s interview with Mueller’s team, one that could be presented to the special counsel as soon as next week, according to the two people.
The president’s legal team hopes to provide Trump’s testimony in a hybrid form — answering some questions in a face-to-face interview and others in a written statement.
There may not have been any new indictments for a while, but I'm betting that changes very quickly. Those previous indictments are now producing bountiful fruit.
Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates has quietly added a prominent white-collar attorney, Tom Green, to his defense team, signaling that Gates' approach to his not-guilty plea could be changing behind the scenes.
Green, a well-known Washington defense lawyer, was seen at special counsel Robert Mueller's office twice last week. CNN is told by a source familiar with the matter that Green has joined Gates' team.
Green isn't listed in the court record as a lawyer in the case and works for a large law firm separate from Gates' primary lawyers.
Green's involvement suggests that there is an ongoing negotiation between the defendant's team and the prosecutors. At this stage, with Gates' charges filed and bail set, talks could concern the charges and Gates' plea. The defense and prosecution are currently working together on discovery of evidence.
No wonder Republicans are literally inventing conspiracy theories to attack Mueller and the FBI.
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