Wary of Mueller, Trump’s team is probing his investigators

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyers and aides are scouring the professional and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel Robert Mueller, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation – or even build a case to fire Mr Mueller or get some members of his team recused, according to three people with knowledge of the research effort.

The search for potential conflicts is wide-ranging. It includes scrutinising donations to Democratic candidates, investigators’ past clients and Mr Mueller’s relationship with Mr James Comey, whose firing as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director is part of the special counsel’s investigation.

The effort to investigate the investigators is another sign of a looming showdown between Mr Trump and Mr Mueller, who has assembled a team of high-powered prosecutors and agents to examine whether any of the president’s advisors aided Russia’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.

Some of the investigators have vast experience prosecuting financial malfeasance, and the prospect that Mr Mueller’s inquiry could evolve into an expansive examination of Mr Trump’s financial history has stoked fears among the president’s aides. Both Mr Trump and his aides have said publicly they are watching closely to ensure Mr Mueller’s investigation remains narrowly focused on last year’s election.

During an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he was aware that members of Mr Mueller’s team had potential conflicts of interest and would make the information available “at some point.”

He also said the special counsel would be going outside his mandate if he begins investigating matters unrelated to Russia, like the president’s personal finances. Mr Trump repeatedly declined to say what he might do if Mr Mueller appeared to exceed that mandate. But his comments to The Times represented a clear message to Mr Mueller.

“The president’s making clear that the special counsel should not move outside the scope of the investigation,” Ms Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said during a news briefing on Thursday (July 20).

Mr Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, countered that Mr Mueller has the authority to investigate any ties the Trump family has to Russia, “including financial, and anything that arises. That is his duty.”

Mr Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the special counsel, declined to comment.

For weeks, Republicans have publicly identified what they see as potential conflicts among Mr Mueller’s team of more than a dozen investigators. In particular, they have cited thousands of dollars of political donations to Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, made by Mr Andrew Weissmann, a former senior Justice Department official who has expertise in fraud and other financial crimes.

News reports have revealed similar donations by other members of Mr Mueller’s team, which the president’s allies have cited as evidence of political bias. Another lawyer Mr Mueller has hired, Ms Jeannie Rhee, represented the Clinton Foundation.

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.’’

To seek a recusal, Mr Trump’s lawyers can argue their case to Mr Mueller or his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The Justice Department has explicit rules about what constitutes a conflict of interest. Prosecutors may not participate in investigations if they have “a personal or political relationship” with the subject of the case. Making campaign donations is not included on the list of things that would create a “political relationship.”

The examination of Mr Mueller’s investigators reflects deep concerns among the president’s aides that he will mount a wide-ranging investigation in the mold of the inquiry conducted by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the 1990s. Ms Starr’s investigation into former President Bill Clinton began by reviewing an Arkansas land deal and concluded several years later with the president’s impeachment over a lie about a sexual affair.

By building files on Mr Mueller’s team, the Trump administration is following in the footsteps of the Clinton White House, which openly challenged Mr Starr and criticised what Mr Clinton’s aides saw as a political witch hunt.

Mr Trump’s advisors are split on how far to go in challenging the independence of Mr Mueller, a retired FBI director and one of the most respected figures in law enforcement. Some advisers have warned that dismissing him would create a legal and political mess.

He cannot fire the special counsel directly, according to the law that authorises Mr Mueller’s probe. If he tried, he could set off a chain-reaction that would throw the Justice Department into upheaval.

Only Mr Rosenstein, on matters related to the probe, can fire Mr Mueller, and he’s said he won’t do it without “good cause.” So the president would first have to purge the upper ranks of the Justice Department until he finds someone willing to follow his orders and dismiss the special counsel.

He’d almost certainly begin by dismissing Mr Rosenstein, whose political loyalties Mr Trump questioned in the Times interview on Wednesday.

Such a scenario would parallel former President Richard Nixon’s 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” when Mr Nixon forced out the top two officials in the Justice Department in order to oust the Watergate special counsel.

“I don’t think that’s politically survivable, and it’s not clear how much collateral damage he has to do to in order to put himself into a position to have somebody fire Mueller,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

Nevertheless, Mr Trump has kept up the attacks on Mr Mueller. In his interview with The Times, which caught members of his legal team by surprise, he focused on the fact that Mr Mueller had interviewed to replace Mr Comey as the FBI director just a day before he was appointed special prosecutor, saying that the interview could create a conflict.

“He was sitting in that chair,” Mr Trump said during the Oval Office interview. “He was up here, and he wanted the job.” The president did not explain how the interview created a conflict of interest.

In addition to investigating possible collusion between Russia and Mr Trump’s advisers, the special counsel is examining whether the president obstructed justice by firing Mr Comey. Some of Mr Trump’s supporters have portrayed Mr Mueller and Mr Comey as close friends. While they worked closely together in the Justice Department under former President George W Bush and are known to respect each other, associates of both men say the two are not particularly close.

Mr Mueller’s team has begun examining financial records, and has requested documents from the Internal Revenue Service related to Mr Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, according to a senior US official. The records are from a criminal tax investigation that had been opened long before Mr Trump’s campaign began. Mr Manafort was never charged in that case.

Mr Mueller has also asked the White House to save all documents related to a meeting last year between Mr Trump Junior and a Russian lawyer he was told had damaging information on his father's presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Federal investigators have also contacted Deutsche Bank about Mr Trump’s accounts, and the bank is expecting to provide information to Mr Mueller.

Deutsche Bank has been one of the few major institutions willing to regularly lend to Mr Trump, who alienated large banks in New York with his past financial troubles and confrontational behavior as a borrower.

Over the years, the bank’s cumulative loans to the president add up to billions, and loans originally worth US$300 million (S$409 million) remain outstanding.

Mr Sekulow, one of the president’s attorney, declined to address the potential conflicts he and the other lawyers for the president have uncovered about Mr Mueller’s team. He said, however, that “any good lawyer would raise, at the appropriate time and in the appropriate venue, conflict-of-interest issues.”

Mr Sekulow is one part of a legal team in the midst of being reorganised, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. While the role of Mr Marc Kasowitz - the president’s longtime New York lawyer, will be significantly reduced, a source familiar with the situation said that he has not left the team.

Mr Trump liked Mr Kasowitz’s blunt, aggressive style, but he was not a natural fit in the delicate, politically charged criminal investigation. The veteran Washington defence lawyer John Dowd will take the lead in representing Mr Trump for the Russia inquiry.

Mr Sekulow, a firebrand lawyer with deep conservative credentials, will serve as Mr Dowd’s deputy. Two people briefed on the new structure said it was created because the investigation is much more focused in Washington, where Mr Dowd has a long history of dealing with the Justice Department.

The reorganisation of the outside legal team also saw its spokesman resigning on Friday (July 21). Mr Mark Corallo confirmed his departure in an e-mailed statement.

The shake-up of the legal team comes weeks after Mr Dowd and Mr Kasowitz had a face-to-face meeting with Mr Mueller. The lawyers said they hoped Mr Mueller would conduct a thorough investigation but asked that he wrap it up in a timely manner because of the cloud it had cast over the presidency, according to a senior US official and two others briefed on details of the meeting. Mr Dowd said Mr Trump would fully cooperate with Mr Mueller, one of the people said.

It is not unusual for lawyers to meet with prosecutors to establish a line of communication, or to encourage them to move quickly. Mr Trump’s situation is unique, though, because of his team’s public threats that they could fire Mr Mueller at any time. AGENCIES