Of course, Mueller, who has been keenly interested in the process that ultimately led to the ouster of his friend, and potential witness, James Comey, has continued to press the issue even after Comey himself said he believed Trump’s conduct during a meeting where the president allegedly asked his then-FBI director to “let go” of the investigation into gaps in Flynn’s security clearance disclosures didn’t rise to the level of obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n
As for how Comey’s firing may be connected to Russian interference during the election – we’re still not clear on that.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEach of the six advisers was privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller\u2019s investigators, including his decision in May to fire FBI Director James B. Comey and the White House\u2019s initial inaction following warnings that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had withheld information from the public about his private discussions in December with Russia\u2019s ambassador to the United States,<\/strong>\u00a0according to people familiar with the probe.
\nThe advisers are also connected to internal documents that Mueller\u2019s investigators have asked the White House to produce, according to people familiar with the special counsel\u2019s inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\nFollowing this round of interviews, it\u2019s widely expected that Mueller could go after senior officials like Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWhite House officials are expecting that Mueller will seek additional interviews, possibly with family members, including Kushner, who is a West Wing senior adviser, according to the people familiar with Mueller\u2019s inquiry.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The idea that Mueller wants to interview Kushner is almost ridiculous, considering he has already sat for marathon interviews with investigators from at least two Congressional committees.\u00a0Former Campaign CEO Paul Manafort has also delivered extensive testimony to Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn addition to Priebus, Spicer and Hicks, Mueller will probably want to question White House counsel Don McGahn.<\/p>\n
Mueller has a different reason for speaking with each individual staffer.<\/strong>Hicks, who is now White House communications director, and Raffel were purportedly involved in discussion over how to respond to the New York Times, which was preparing its initial report about the now infamous \u201cRussia meeting.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, if Mueller wants to learn more about Hicks’s role in the decision-making process, there appears to be an easier way:\u00a0He could just pick up a copy of the Post.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\u201cThe two communications staffers advocated being transparent about the purpose of the meeting, which Trump Jr. had accepted after he was offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton that he was told was part of a Russian government effort to help his father\u2019s campaign.<\/strong>
\nUltimately, according to people familiar with the discussions, the president dictated language for the statement that his son would release to the New York Times, which was preparing a report about the meeting. The response omitted important details about the meeting and presented it as \u201cprimarily\u201d devoted to a discussion of the adoption of Russian children.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSpicer was reportedly drawn in to the administration\u2019s handling of the Flynn firing.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAfter The Washington Post reported that Flynn had talked with Kislyak about sanctions, Spicer told reporters that Flynn had \u201creached out to\u201d Kislyak on Christmas Day to extend holiday greetings \u2014 effectively rejecting claims that they had talked about U.S. sanctions against Moscow. A few days later, President Barack Obama had announced he was expelling 35 Russian \u201cintelligence operatives\u201d in response to the Kremlin\u2019s meddling in the U.S. election.
\nAfter Obama\u2019s announcement, Spicer said Kislyak had sent a message requesting that Flynn call him.<\/p>\n
\u2018Flynn took that call,\u2019 Spicer said. But he stressed that the call \u2018centered on the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and [Trump] after the election.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nOf course, those leftist conspiracy theorists who believe plotting Russians successfully influenced the outcome of an American election have received plenty of grist from the media this week.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump Jr. told Congressional investigators that he took the now infamous Russia meeting to try and determine Hillary Clinton\u2019s \u201cfitness\u201d for office.\u00a0Earlier in the week, Facebook unleashed a veritable firestorm of hysteria after it \u201cadmitted\u201d that it had sold at least $100,000 in advertising to a Russian troll farm – though the ads in question didn’t explicitly support either candidate.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile the competing Congressional investigations have largely devolved into a battle of political posturing between competing committees, it seems that Mueller remains determined to cast the widest possible net, suggesting that the former FBI Director is frantically searching for a “smoking gun.<\/p>\n
___
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