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<\/a>As the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has helped produce a series of indictments and guilty pleas, Republicans have increased their attacks on him, saying his investigation is being run by partisans. Credit Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
\nThe New York Times<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 For much of the seven months since Robert S. Mueller III was appointed special counsel, President Trump\u2019s lawyers have stressed their cooperation with him, believing that the more they work with his investigation, the sooner the president will have his name cleared.<\/p>\n
But in recent weeks, as the investigation has reached deeper into Mr. Trump\u2019s inner circle, that image of cooperation has begun to fracture. Mr. Trump\u2019s lawyers and supporters have\u00a0significantly increased their attacks<\/a> on Mr. Mueller, especially as the F.B.I. has handed them fresh ammunition to claim that the agents investigating the president may be biased.<\/p>\n The latest salvos came over the weekend, when a top Republican senator said Mr. Mueller should examine his team\u2019s political leanings, and a lawyer for Mr. Trump sent a letter to lawmakers saying that the special counsel had improperly gotten emails from the presidential transition team.<\/p>\n \u201cNot looking good, it\u2019s not looking good \u2014 it\u2019s quite sad to see that, my people were very upset about it,\u201d Mr. Trump said on Sunday when asked about the emails. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine there\u2019s anything on them, frankly, because, as we\u2019ve said, there\u2019s no collusion, no collusion whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n While Mr. Trump also said he was not considering firing Mr. Mueller, the mounting attacks have fueled concerns among Democrats that he is preparing to do so. Eric H. Holder Jr., President Barack Obama\u2019s first attorney general,\u00a0said on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday that any such move would be an \u201cABSOLUTE RED LINE.\u201d<\/p>\n Legal experts said there was no indication that Mr. Mueller, who has wide power to obtain documents through written requests, subpoenas and search warrants, improperly obtained the transition emails. But amid the barrage of criticism, Mr. Mueller\u2019s office issued a rare statement on Sunday defending how the information had been obtained during the inquiry into Russian election meddling.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner\u2019s consent or appropriate criminal process,\u201d said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel\u2019s office.<\/p>\n A lawyer for Mr. Trump said in a letter to Congress on Saturday that the General Services Administration, the government agency that had the transition team\u2019s emails, had handed them over to Mr. Mueller\u2019s investigators in August without allowing transition team lawyers to review them. The documents, the lawyer argued, should have been shielded by various privileges, like attorney-client privilege.<\/p>\n The materials, said the lawyer, Kory Langhofer, were the property of the transition team, and therefore it should have had the chance to decide what was given to investigators.<\/p>\n