Trump turns the table on Russian investigation

Trump turns the table on Russian investigation

July 21, 2017

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has openly complained that former President Barack Obama was sabotaging him from inside Washington, D.C.

Now he’s set to turn the tables on these Obama plants — starting with the heads of the Russian collusion investigation.

Critics of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation team say most have remained loyal to former FBI Director James Comey, who was outspokenly biased against Trump.

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This week, Trump’s legal team began fighting back. According to reports, the White House has an army of lawyers evaluating potential conflicts of interest among members of the special counsel Mueller’s investigative team, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The revelation comes as Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election meddling appears likely to target some of the Trump family’s business ties.

Attorney Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s external legal team, told The Associated Press Thursday that the lawyers “will consistently evaluate the issue of conflicts and raise them in the appropriate venue.”

Two of the people with knowledge of that process say those efforts include probing the political affiliations of Mueller’s investigators and their past work history. Trump himself has publicly challenged Mueller, declaring this week that the former FBI director would be crossing a line if he investigated the president’s personal business ties.

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Trump has assailed the probes as a partisan “witch hunt” after investigations have increasingly attacked his family and close advisers, including son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

As the investigations intensify, Trump’s legal team is also undergoing a shakeup. New York-based attorney Marc Kasowitz, whose unconventional style has irked some White House aides, is seen as a diminishing presence in the operation, according to the two people with knowledge of the matter.

John Dowd, an experienced Washington attorney, is expected to step up his role on the president’s outside legal team, which also includes Sekulow. They’re just a few of the fast-growing cadre of attorneys stepping up to represent the president, his family and close advisers as the investigations continue to expand.

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Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the investigations, which threaten to shadow his administration for months or even years. In an interview Wednesday with The New York Times, Trump warned Mueller that it would be a “violation” if he investigated the Trump family’s financial entanglements.

Mueller’s mandate in overseeing the federal probe is broad. He’s authorized to investigate Russia’s election interference, any potential Trump campaign ties and any matters that stem from those inquiries.

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Sekulow has repeatedly said the president “has not received any indication” that he personally is under investigation.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump has no intention of firing Mueller “at this time,” but she did not rule out doing so in the future, should a conflict of interest be found. She also reiterated Trump’s concern about the scope of Mueller’s investigation, saying it “should stay in the confines of meddling, Russia meddling, and the election and nothing beyond that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article