A new report indicates that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s days of causing White House staffers to grow increasingly paranoid of one another isn’t over yet. That’s because the former FBI director, whom Donald Trump occasionally considers firing, has begun investigating certain of the president’s actions since his inauguration. According to the New York Times, Mueller and his team are especially interested in what transpired before, during, and after Trump’s infamous Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, during which he described fired FBI Director James Comey as “crazy” and a “real nut job.”
Per the report, Mueller’s ever-expanding probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia recently submitted a request for any and all documents pertaining to “13 different areas” of interest. Various White House lawyers have since combed through staffers’ emails and asked for any “other documents or notes” that may relate to the request. One subject of interest to the investigation, it turns out, is the infamous May 10th meeting:
One of the requests is about a meeting Mr. Trump had in May with Russian officials in the Oval Office the day after James B. Comey, the F.B. I director, was fired. That day, Mr. Trump met with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak, along with other Russian officials. The New York Times reported that in the meeting Mr. Trump said that firing Mr. Comey relieved “great pressure” on him.
Aside from purportedly badmouthing Comey to Lavrov, Kislyak and their entourage, Trump also revealed classified information to the pair during their chat. And if that weren’t bad enough, the White House banned the American press from witnessing or documenting the occasion, though the Russian delegation managed to get their own photographers into the Oval Office to snap a few photos. These, along with the Times‘ seminal report on the meeting and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troll-y offer to provide transcripts, didn’t cast too good a light on the White House.
(Via New York Times)