Mueller's Russia team reportedly seeks

White House records on Trump actions

Investigation appears to enter new phase amid reports of request for
documents related to Trump’s most controversial actions since taking
office

Lauren Gambino and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington

Thu 21 Sep 2017 00.11 BSTLast modified on Thu 5 Jul 2018 21.48 BST

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According to reports Wednesday, Mueller’s team sought more information related to 13

areas including the firings of James Comey and Michael Flynn. Photograph: J. Scott
Applewhite/AP

The special counsel Robert Mueller has asked the White House to provide documents
related to Donald Trump’s most controversial actions since taking office in January,
according to two reports on Wednesday.

The inquiry from Mueller’s team, who is leading the investigation into whether
Trump associates coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential
election, suggests that the investigation is moving into a new phase, inching closer to
the president.

According to anonymous White House officials, the New York Times reported,
Mueller’s team sought more information related to 13 areas, including the
circumstances around the firing of Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn,
and of the FBI director, James Comey.

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The team is also interested in an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Russian
officials in May, a day after he fired Comey. During that meeting, Trump reportedly
told Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Sergey Kislyak, the former
Russian ambassador to the United States, that Comey’s dismissal had relieved “great
pressure” on him.

The Washington Post confirmed the request had been made to the White House, and
reported that Mueller had also requested that the White House turn over documents
related to the FBI interview of Flynn in January, days after Trump took office. They
are also interested in a late January conversation in which Sally Yates, then the
acting attorney general, raised concerns about Flynn with the White House counsel,
Don McGahn. Additionally, they are looking at how the White House responded to a
Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer in June 2016.

The list of actions by the president and his close associates that Mueller’s team is
reportedly scrutinizing suggests that investigators are looking at whether Trump
sought to shut down the investigation into Flynn. Mueller’s team is also examining
whether Trump or others in the White House attempted to obstruct justice when the
president fired Comey, who had been leading the Russia investigation until his
dismissal.

The Washington Post also reported that Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul
Manafort, offered to provide briefings on the state of the election to a Russian
billionaire with links to the Kremlin. Citing people familiar with the discussions, the
Post report said Manafort had made the offer in an email to an intermediary, whom
he asked to relay the message to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with whom
Manafort had done business.

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The list of actions reportedly being looked into suggest Mueller’s team is examining
whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice. Photograph: Brendan
Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort reportedly wrote in an

email from 7 July 2016, which was read to the Washington Post along with other
correspondence from that time.

The story said that the emails were among tens of thousands of documents turned
over to Mueller’s team and congressional investigators as part of the inquiry into
Russian meddling in the US election.

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There have been several indications that Mueller’s investigation is not simply
escalating, but also increasing its scrutiny on how the Trump White House has
handled matters pertaining to Russia.

Donald Trump Jr’s meeting at Trump Tower in July 2016 with the Russian lawyer
Natalia Veselnitskaya has emerged as a pivotal moment for both the federal inquiry
as well as parallel investigations in Congress. According to emails released to the
public in July, he was informed prior to the meeting of an effort by the Russian
government to help elect his father. Trump’s eldest son also suggested he was open to
accepting incriminating informationabout Hillary Clinton from Moscow.

Earlier this month, the special counsel’s team reportedly sought interviews with
White House staffers who were aboard Air Force Once in July, when the president
himself helped to craft a highly misleading statement about the nature of his son’s
meeting. The statement initially claimed Donald TrumpJr’s meeting with
Veselnitskaya, which was also attended by Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared
Kushner, was to discuss a policy banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

In August, Mueller convened a grand jury in Washington through which subpoenas

were issued in relation to the June 2016 meeting. The FBI also used a search warrant
to carry out a raid of Manafort’s home in late July to seize documents relevant to the
Russia investigation.