News Article: Mueller Charges 13 Russian Nationals, 3 Russian Entities with Election Interference

In early December, President Trump, furious over news reports about a new round of subpoenas from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told advisers in no uncertain terms that Mr. Mueller’s investigation had to be shut down.

The president’s anger was fueled by reports that the subpoenas were for obtaining information about his business dealings with Deutsche Bank, according to interviews with eight White House officials, people close to the president and others familiar with the episode.

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President Donald Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, multiple people familiar with the discussions tell CNN, a move that has gained urgency following the raid of the office of the President's personal lawyer.

Such an action could potentially further Trump's goal of trying to put greater limits on special counsel Robert Mueller.

This is one of several options -- including going so far as to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- Trump is weighing in the aftermath of the FBI's decision Monday to raid the office of Michael Cohen, the President's personal lawyer and longtime confidant.

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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and President Donald Trump’s legal team are now proceeding with strategies that presume a presidential interview will likely not take place as part of the Russia investigation, after months of talks between the two sides collapsed earlier this week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The prospects for a presidential interview drastically dimmed once the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen on Monday, these people said. The president criticized the raid as out of bounds in Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump aides... The raid on Cohen “significantly complicated” any negotiations for the president’s legal team, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Prior to Monday’s raid, Mueller’s team had been aiming to finalize a report on its findings on whether the president has tried to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation in the coming months, as early as May or as late as July, three sources said. That timeline hinged in part on reaching a decision on a presidential interview, these people said. One person familiar with the investigation described a decision on an interview as one of the last steps Mueller was seeking to take before closing his investigation into obstruction.

Now, according to two sources, Mueller’s team may be able to close the obstruction probe more quickly as they will not need to prepare for the interview or follow up on what the president says.

Three sources familiar with the investigation said the findings Mueller has collected on Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice include: His intent to fire former FBI Director James Comey; his role in the crafting of a misleading public statement on the nature of a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son and Russians; Trump’s dangling of pardons before grand jury witnesses who might testify against him; and pressuring Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

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President Trump’s personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week.

Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant of Trump, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues, according to people who have interacted with him.

It is unknown whether Cohen taped conversations between himself and Trump. But two people familiar with Cohen’s practices said he recorded both business and political conversations. One associate said Trump knew of Cohen’s practice because the attorney would often play him recordings Cohen had made of his conversations with other top Trump advisers. “It was his standard practice to do it,” this person said.

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"Donald Trump's presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation," Comey writes. "This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional value. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty."

When Comey met Trump to brief him on Russia’s involvement in the election, he recalled the then-president-elect's reaction reminded him of the mob.

Comey writes that Trump asked only one question: "But you found there was no impact on the result, right?" Trump and his team then “shifted immediately into a strategy session about messaging on Russia. About how they could spin what we’d just told them."

Comey said he had never seen president George W. Bush or Barack Obama discuss communication and political strategy in front of intelligence officials.

"I tried to tell myself that maybe this was because Trump and his team had little experience on these matters — Trump, of course, had no experience in government whatsoever — but in an instant, the line between intelligence and politics began to fade," Comey writes.

He goes on to compare the scene to his days as a Manhattan federal prosecutor all too familiar with New York mafia social clubs like the Ravenite, the Palma Boys and Cafe Giardino.

"I couldn’t shake the picture," he writes. "And looking back, it wasn’t as odd and dramatic as I thought it was at the time."

Comey goes on to describe Trump's crusade to secure his loyalty in the now-infamous private White House dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, in which he says the president told him, "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty."

“The demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony — with Trump, in the role of the family boss, asking me if I have what it takes to be a 'made man,'" Comey writes, referring to the former leader of the Gambino crime family whose testimony helped convict mob boss John Gotti.

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92tide said:

i guess we need to get the popcorn ready.

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Jon said:

McClatchy reporting their sources are saying Mueller has evidence that Cohen was in Prague right about the time the Steele dossier says he was

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html

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