Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

White House on edge over Russia probe

minus
plus

Paul Handley -


For two months, Robert Mueller — the lanky, 72-year-old independent prosecutor investigating the Russia scandal — has worked in virtual silence in a nondescript government office building in downtown Washington.


But even without saying a word, the former FBI director and no-nonsense prosecutor has deeply unnerved the occupants of the White House just eight blocks away, especially President Donald Trump, over where his probe is going.


Mueller has built a team of more than a dozen tough-as-nails investigators.


Since May, they have been quietly interviewing witnesses and collecting documents to establish whether there are links between top aides from Trump’s campaign, members of his family, and possibly the president himself and Russian interference in the 2016 election.


After dismissing the probe for months as “ridiculous” and “fake news,” Trump laid bare his concerns this week, lashing out at the Justice Department, from his hand-picked Attorney General Jeff Sessions on down the line, over the probe.


He took special aim at Mueller, making clear he intends to try to undercut and discredit the man who could bring down his presidency — and possibly eventually remove him.


In an interview with The New York Times, Trump complained that one day after he interviewed Mueller to replace fired FBI chief James Comey, Mueller instead went and took the job of investigating the Russia scandal.


“The next day, he is appointed special counsel. I said, what the hell is this all about? Talk about conflicts,” Trump said.


Any prosecutor taking on the presidency has to shoulder an immense amount of political pressure, said Randall Samborn, an attorney who took part in a probe that targeted political heavyweight vice president Dick Cheney in the 2000s.


But if anyone should be able to handle that, Samborn said, it would be Mueller.


Mueller, a former Marine wounded in fighting in Vietnam, is also a veteran of tough prosecutions, including taking on former Panama president Manuel Noriega and mafia don John Gotti.


He took the helm of the FBI one week before the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the following years, he turned it into a potent counter-terrorism agency.


Since May, Mueller’s team of hard-nosed and deeply experienced federal prosecutors, FBI investigators, spy-chasers and money-path followers have been talking to witnesses and amassing files, the only hints of their work coming from requests they send to their targets.


The investigation appears to have spread beyond the issue of collusion with Russia.


According to reports, Mueller is looking into Trump’s past real estate business and his tax returns, possible money laundering by campaign aides, perjury and obstruction of justice, and other possible crimes.


The investigation — as well as parallel probes by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees — have extended beyond campaign aides to Trump’s inner circle, including son Donald Trump Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner.


Clearly off balance, the White House has recruited its own brigade of attorneys with expertise in constitutional law, criminal defence, and cold-blooded media counter-attack.


They have accused Mueller’s team of being biased toward Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, and have assailed the breadth of the investigation.


Media reports say Trump’s legal team has studied the possibility of him issuing pardons to protect those in Mueller’s crosshairs.


In a Saturday morning tweet, Trump boasted of a US president’s “complete power to pardon”.


Analysts say Team Trump is laying the groundwork for removing Mueller. —AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon