Senate OKs Russia sanctions that would be tough for Trump to lift
Mueller investigating Trump for obstruction of justice, Washington Post reports
Washington (CNN)Justice
Department special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President
Donald Trump for obstruction of justice, The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening.
Mueller is interviewing as early as this week three top intelligence officials as part of the probe, the Post reported, citing "five people briefed on the requests."
The
three officials the Post says Mueller is interviewing are Director of
National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike
Rogers and Richard Ledgett, the recently retired deputy NSA director.
Coats
will also meet with members of the Senate intelligence committee
Thursday, one week after his tense grilling by the panel, according to a
committee source.
It
is the most significant sign yet that Mueller's investigation is
extending beyond questions of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The news came the same week as Trump friend Chris Ruddy floated the possibility that Trump would fire Mueller, who was appointed to head up the investigation after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, immediately condemned the Post report.
"The FBI leak of information regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal," Corallo told CNN.
The White House declined to comment, referring questions to Kasowitz.
The
NSA said in a statement that the "NSA will fully cooperate with the
special counsel. We are not in a position to comment further."
A spokesman for the DNI declined to comment to CNN.
Trump
wrote in his letter firing Comey that the ousted FBI director had
informed him on three separate occasions he was not under investigation.
The President has stressed he was not under investigation, and has
taken to Twitter to dismiss the entire investigation as a hoax.
The report that Trump himself is being scrutinized for obstruction of justice served to undercut Trump's claims.
Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, hinted broadly
that the special counsel investigation could be looking at Trump during a
House committee hearing
on Tuesday. When asked about a letter he wrote recommending firing
Comey, Rosenstein said that Mueller could be looking into the
decision-making process for the firing -- and he was therefore "not at
liberty to talk about that now."
Mueller
has been tasked with leading the executive branch's investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 election and any potential collusion
between Russia and Trump associates.
Mueller
met with Sens. Richard Burr and Mark Warner, the Republican and
Democratic leadership of the Senate intelligence committee Wednesday.
Comey
testified before the Senate intelligence committee last week and
confirmed that he gave Mueller the memos he wrote detailing his
interactions with Trump ahead of his firing. In one memo, Comey said
Trump tried to direct him to drop an investigation into former national
security adviser Michael Flynn.
Comey said he believed Mueller would look into Trump for obstruction of justice.
"I
don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the
President was an effort to obstruct," Comey said. "I took it as a very
disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion I'm sure the
special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the
intention was there, and whether that's an offense."
Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee,
wrote a letter to Chairman Chuck Grassley calling for the judiciary
committee to establish its own investigation into obstruction of
justice.
Grassley on Tuesday stopped short of ruling out establishing a congressional investigation into the question of whether Trump obstructed justice.
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