President Trump’s inner circle has now been penetrated by Robert Mueller’s investigation.
CNN is reporting that Stephen Miller, White House senior policy adviser, has been interviewed by Mueller’s team, as part of the ongoing Russia probe.
So what did Miller talk about?
Miller’s role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey was among the topics discussed during the interview as part of the probe into possible obstruction of justice, according to one of the sources.
Special counsel investigators have also shown interest in talking to attendees of a March 2016 meeting where foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos said that he could arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin through his connections. Miller was also at the meeting, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Miller also had a hand in crafting the scrapped memo earlier this year, explaining why Trump was firing then-FBI Director James Comey. White House counsel Don McGahn considered that original memo “problematic.”
The letter that was eventually put together to dismiss Comey was done in May, during one of Trump’s weekend stays at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. Son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was also on hand.
There have been some rumors that suggest Kushner felt Comey was so unpopular with Democrats after the 2016 election that if Trump were to fire him, it would gain Trump some Brownie points from the left.
Mueller’s team wants to speak with Kushner about his role in Comey’s firing, as well.
The Times reported in September that the Justice Department had turned over a copy of the letter, which was never sent, to special counsel Robert Mueller. That memo, according to a source, was very similar to a letter written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that was cited as the reason for firing Comey. Rosenstein’s letter criticized Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
But just days after the firing, Trump said he considered the Russia probe in his decision to fire Comey.
“In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said ‘you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won’,” Trump said about his decision to fire Comey in a May interview with NBC News.
Trump can’t get out of his own way.
So far, Mueller’s team have interviewed former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg.
There is still interest in speaking with communications director Hope Hicks, McGahn, and communication aide to Jared Kushner, Josh Raffel.
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