While Donald Trump and his apologists repeatedly claim that the president isn’t the subject of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, more news on Wednesday shows the opposite to be true.
According to The Washington Post, Mueller is now looking into whether Trump’s effort to force Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of his job last summer was “part of a months-long pattern of attempted obstruction of justice.”
More from the Washington Post:
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has been investigating a period of time last summer when President Trump seemed determined to drive Attorney General Jeff Sessions from his job, according to people familiar with the matter who said that a key area of interest for the inquiry is whether those efforts were part of a months-long pattern of attempted obstruction of justice.
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In recent months, Mueller’s team has questioned witnesses in detail about Trump’s private comments and state of mind in late July and early August of last year, around the time he issued a series of tweets belittling his “beleaguered†attorney general, these people said. The thrust of the questions was to determine whether the president’s goal was to oust Sessions in order to pick a replacement who would exercise control over the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump associates during the 2016 election, these people said.
…
Behind the scenes, Trump has derisively referred to Sessions as “Mr. Magoo,†a cartoon character who is elderly, myopic and bumbling, according to people with whom he has spoken. Trump has told associates that he has hired the best lawyers for his entire life, but is stuck with Sessions, who is not defending him and is not sufficiently loyal.
The news comes at a bad time for Trump, who today decided to publicly urge Sessions via Twitter to investigate his political opponents using “Justice Department laywers”:
Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018
Robert Mueller is laser-focused on Trump
Mueller’s probe appears to be increasingly focused on the president’s actions, despite attempts by the White House to deny any wrongdoing. The Washington Post report isn’t the first piece of reporting on Wednesday to show that the investigation is directed squarely at Trump.
As NBC News reported earlier, “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe.”
Jason Easley delved into that NBC News report here.
When it comes to conspiring with Russia to tip the 2016 election and any possible obstruction of justice, Robert Mueller isn’t just investigating some low-level Trump staffers or even close advisers. He has his sights set on Donald Trump himself, too.
The White House should be very worried.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
