Saturday, February 03, 2018 1:26:14 AM
Who we know has spoken with the Mueller investigation
"Forget Paul Manafort – these are the men cooperating with the FBI who Trump should be really afraid of"
.. two back .. Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President
By Philip Bump February 1 Email the author
President Trump speaks during a lunch at the 2018 House & Senate Republican Member Conference on Feb. 1. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Shortly before President Trump’s first State of the Union address, news broke on another front. According to CNN .. http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/donald-trump-attorneys/index.html , lawyers for Trump were telling special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that his team had not met the threshold for necessitating an in-person interview with the president. Despite Trump’s insistence that he was happy to sit down and talk to Mueller about the 2016 election and its aftermath, his attorneys are apparently disinclined to be so generous.
Happily for Mueller’s team, they’ve found enough people to speak with to stay busy. Trump attorney John Dowd released a document .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/russia-investigators-have-interviewed-more-than-20-white-house-officials-trumps-legal-team-says/2018/01/25/5a4f587a-01e8-11e8-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html?utm_term=.23e6b01496a9 .. stating that 20 White House officials had provided information to Mueller’s team — in addition to 17 campaign staff who’d spoken with the special counsel or congressional committees.
Who are all of these people? We put together an illustration identifying those we know about. Fuller descriptions follow.
Worked on campaign or transition and serves in the administration
Jared Kushner. Senior adviser. Spoke with Mueller team in November .. http://time.com/5042554/jard-kushner-michael-flynn-robert-mueller-russia/ . Kushner attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a lawyer linked to the Russian government and was a senior staffer both in the campaign and the White House. During the campaign, he helped lead its digital outreach efforts. Those efforts have reportedly .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/12/the-investigation-goes-digital-did-someone-point-russia-to-specific-online-targets/ .. been a focus of Mueller’s team, given the extent of Russian online activity. (Kushner is also the president’s son-in-law.)
Hope Hicks. Communications director. Spoke with team in December .. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hope-hicks-met-special-counsels-team-interviews/story?id=51681287 . Hicks has been close to Trump since before the campaign began. The New York Times reported .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html .. Wednesday that she told former Trump legal team spokesman Mark Corallo that emails related to that June 2016 meeting would “never get out” — raising questions about efforts to interfere with the investigation.
Stephen Miller. Senior adviser. Spoke with team in November .. https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/politics/stephen-miller-interviewed-special-counsel-russia-investigation/index.html . Miller was asked to draft the first version of a letter firing former FBI director James B. Comey.
Jeff Sessions. Attorney general. Spoke with team in January .. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/politics/jeff-sessions-robert-mueller-interview/index.html . Sessions was an early Trump supporter whose meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 weren’t reported to the Senate during his confirmation hearings. On the campaign, he helped lead the foreign policy advisory team, which included George Papadopoulos and Carter Page.
Donald McGahn. White House counsel. Spoke with team in November .. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362946-white-house-counsel-mcgahn-interviews-with-muellers-office . As chief counsel, McGahn has been involved in a number of conversations related to Trump’s handling of the Russia investigation and the firing of Comey.
Worked on campaign or transition and served in the administration
Michael Flynn. Former national security adviser. Charged with lying to the FBI last December .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-flynn-charged-with-making-false-statement-to-the-fbi/2017/12/01/e03a6c48-d6a2-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html . Flynn was informed that he was under investigation by the FBI before .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/michael-flynn-donald-trump-national-security-adviser.html .. Trump was inaugurated, apparently due to his failure to report foreign lobbying work. During an interview with the FBI shortly after Trump’s inauguration, he misrepresented conversations he’d had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Stephen K. Bannon. Former campaign CEO and senior adviser. Due to speak with team soon. Bannon helped lead the campaign over its last few months and was in the West Wing during the period that Comey was fired.
Reince Priebus. Former chief of staff. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/reince-priebus-former-trump-chief-of-staff-interviewed-by-mueller-team/2017/10/13/fbbe6c66-b060-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html . Priebus ran the West Wing during the first few months of Trump’s presidency, including during the firing of Comey. As head of the Republican National Committee, he was also privy to the party’s efforts.
Sean Spicer. Former press secretary. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/17/sean-spicer-mueller-russia-probe-243882 . Spicer was part of the response effort after Comey was fired and, as strategist for the GOP in 2016, was part of the party’s campaign efforts.
Sam Clovis. Former USDA nominee, and campaign and White House adviser. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/top-trump-campaign-aide-clovis-spoke-mueller-team-grand-jury-n816106 . On the campaign, Clovis was a point of contact for the foreign policy advisory team, including Papadopoulos and Page.
Worked on campaign or transition
Paul Manafort. Former campaign chairman. Charged with conspiracy and making false statements in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manafort-and-former-business-partner-asked-to-surrender-in-connection-with-special-counsel-probe/2017/10/30/6fe051f0-bd67-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html . Manafort’s extensive ties to Russian actors and his questionable financial activity came to light even before the campaign ended.
Jason Maloni. Manafort spokesman. Testified before grand jury in September ,, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/paul-manafort-spokesman-jason-maloni/index.html . Maloni worked closely with Manafort.
Rick Gates. Former campaign staffer. Charged with conspiracy and making false statements in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manafort-and-former-business-partner-asked-to-surrender-in-connection-with-special-counsel-probe/2017/10/30/6fe051f0-bd67-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html . Gates was a longtime ally of Manafort who joined him on the campaign.
Carter Page. Former campaign adviser. Sent a letter .. https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/carter_page_hpsci_hearing_transcript_nov_2_2017.pdf .. to Mueller’s team in October. Page was under surveillance .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/01/31/what-we-know-about-the-warrant-to-surveil-carter-page/ .. by the FBI for his contacts with Russian actors beginning in October 2016. In a letter sent to Mueller’s team last year (along with House and Senate committees), Page demanded information about that warrant.
George Papadopoulos. Former campaign adviser. Admitted lying to the FBI in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/10/30/timeline-how-a-trump-adviser-tried-to-work-with-the-russian-government/ . Papadopoulos had repeated interactions with Russia-linked individuals and appears to have precipitated the entire FBI investigation when he told an Australian diplomat in the spring of 2016 that he knew of compromising material the Russians had on Hillary Clinton.
Serves in the administration
Several senior intelligence officials — CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Security Council head Keith Kellogg, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and NSA Director Mike Rogers — spoke with Mueller’s team at some point last year. Coats and Rogers were identified in reporting as having been asked by Trump to put pressure on Comey to end the investigation into Flynn.
No longer serves in the administration
Mark Corallo. Former legal team spokesman. Due to speak with team soon. Corallo had the conversation with Hicks about the June 2016 emails. He left his position in July 2017 after details of the Trump Tower meeting were revealed. (Corallo technically worked for Trump’s private legal team and not the administration, but we’re slotting him in here.)
James B. Comey. Former FBI director. Spoke with team in June or July .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/24/cia-director-mike-pompeo-mueller-trump-russia . Comey obviously has detailed information about his interactions with Trump. As head of the FBI in 2016, he was responsible for its counterintelligence investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.
Sally Yates. Former deputy attorney general. Spoke with team in July .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/investigators-interview-sally-yates-about-white-house-meetings-1513034375 . Yates was involved in early conversations about Flynn’s interview with the FBI and responsible the counterintelligence investigation until Sessions was confirmed as attorney general.
Other people
Wayne Holland. Real estate agent. Testified before grand jury in October .. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/27/paul-manafort-realtor-russia-probe-robert-mueller-244261 . Holland sold real estate to Manafort and presumably provided information central to the Mueller team’s investigation into money laundering.
Simona Mangiante. Papadopoulos’ fiancee. Spoke with team last year .. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/367748-papadopoulos-fiancee-interviewed-by-mueller-says-she-talked . It’s not clear what Mangiante provided information about.
Rinat Akhmetshin. Lobbyist tied to .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/rinat-akhmetshin-russia-trump-meeting.html .. Russian intelligence. Spoke with team in August .. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/russian-american-lobbyist-rinat-akhmetshin-appeared-before-robert-muellers-grand-jury/article/2633042 . Akhmetshin attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
George Nader. Spoke with team more than once .. https://www.axios.com/scoop-muellers-interest-in-a-mysterious-white-house-visitor-1516568389-6d406353-c96b-438f-99dc-9d9dc31413de.html . Nader’s role is unclear. Axios reported on his ties to the White House:
-
“Nader visited the White House frequently during the early months of the Trump administration. He became friendly with former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, visiting his office regularly. A source familiar with the White House meetings said Jared Kushner also met Nader. After asking around about Nader, Kushner decided not to continue meeting with him, according to the same source.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/01/who-we-know-has-spoken-with-the-mueller-investigation/?utm_term=.8e79ac02b13c
"Forget Paul Manafort – these are the men cooperating with the FBI who Trump should be really afraid of"
.. two back .. Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President
By Philip Bump February 1 Email the author
President Trump speaks during a lunch at the 2018 House & Senate Republican Member Conference on Feb. 1. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Shortly before President Trump’s first State of the Union address, news broke on another front. According to CNN .. http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/donald-trump-attorneys/index.html , lawyers for Trump were telling special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that his team had not met the threshold for necessitating an in-person interview with the president. Despite Trump’s insistence that he was happy to sit down and talk to Mueller about the 2016 election and its aftermath, his attorneys are apparently disinclined to be so generous.
Happily for Mueller’s team, they’ve found enough people to speak with to stay busy. Trump attorney John Dowd released a document .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/russia-investigators-have-interviewed-more-than-20-white-house-officials-trumps-legal-team-says/2018/01/25/5a4f587a-01e8-11e8-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html?utm_term=.23e6b01496a9 .. stating that 20 White House officials had provided information to Mueller’s team — in addition to 17 campaign staff who’d spoken with the special counsel or congressional committees.
Who are all of these people? We put together an illustration identifying those we know about. Fuller descriptions follow.
Worked on campaign or transition and serves in the administration
Jared Kushner. Senior adviser. Spoke with Mueller team in November .. http://time.com/5042554/jard-kushner-michael-flynn-robert-mueller-russia/ . Kushner attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a lawyer linked to the Russian government and was a senior staffer both in the campaign and the White House. During the campaign, he helped lead its digital outreach efforts. Those efforts have reportedly .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/12/the-investigation-goes-digital-did-someone-point-russia-to-specific-online-targets/ .. been a focus of Mueller’s team, given the extent of Russian online activity. (Kushner is also the president’s son-in-law.)
Hope Hicks. Communications director. Spoke with team in December .. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hope-hicks-met-special-counsels-team-interviews/story?id=51681287 . Hicks has been close to Trump since before the campaign began. The New York Times reported .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html .. Wednesday that she told former Trump legal team spokesman Mark Corallo that emails related to that June 2016 meeting would “never get out” — raising questions about efforts to interfere with the investigation.
Stephen Miller. Senior adviser. Spoke with team in November .. https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/politics/stephen-miller-interviewed-special-counsel-russia-investigation/index.html . Miller was asked to draft the first version of a letter firing former FBI director James B. Comey.
Jeff Sessions. Attorney general. Spoke with team in January .. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/politics/jeff-sessions-robert-mueller-interview/index.html . Sessions was an early Trump supporter whose meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 weren’t reported to the Senate during his confirmation hearings. On the campaign, he helped lead the foreign policy advisory team, which included George Papadopoulos and Carter Page.
Donald McGahn. White House counsel. Spoke with team in November .. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362946-white-house-counsel-mcgahn-interviews-with-muellers-office . As chief counsel, McGahn has been involved in a number of conversations related to Trump’s handling of the Russia investigation and the firing of Comey.
Worked on campaign or transition and served in the administration
Michael Flynn. Former national security adviser. Charged with lying to the FBI last December .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-flynn-charged-with-making-false-statement-to-the-fbi/2017/12/01/e03a6c48-d6a2-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html . Flynn was informed that he was under investigation by the FBI before .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/michael-flynn-donald-trump-national-security-adviser.html .. Trump was inaugurated, apparently due to his failure to report foreign lobbying work. During an interview with the FBI shortly after Trump’s inauguration, he misrepresented conversations he’d had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Stephen K. Bannon. Former campaign CEO and senior adviser. Due to speak with team soon. Bannon helped lead the campaign over its last few months and was in the West Wing during the period that Comey was fired.
Reince Priebus. Former chief of staff. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/reince-priebus-former-trump-chief-of-staff-interviewed-by-mueller-team/2017/10/13/fbbe6c66-b060-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html . Priebus ran the West Wing during the first few months of Trump’s presidency, including during the firing of Comey. As head of the Republican National Committee, he was also privy to the party’s efforts.
Sean Spicer. Former press secretary. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/17/sean-spicer-mueller-russia-probe-243882 . Spicer was part of the response effort after Comey was fired and, as strategist for the GOP in 2016, was part of the party’s campaign efforts.
Sam Clovis. Former USDA nominee, and campaign and White House adviser. Spoke with team in October .. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/top-trump-campaign-aide-clovis-spoke-mueller-team-grand-jury-n816106 . On the campaign, Clovis was a point of contact for the foreign policy advisory team, including Papadopoulos and Page.
Worked on campaign or transition
Paul Manafort. Former campaign chairman. Charged with conspiracy and making false statements in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manafort-and-former-business-partner-asked-to-surrender-in-connection-with-special-counsel-probe/2017/10/30/6fe051f0-bd67-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html . Manafort’s extensive ties to Russian actors and his questionable financial activity came to light even before the campaign ended.
Jason Maloni. Manafort spokesman. Testified before grand jury in September ,, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/paul-manafort-spokesman-jason-maloni/index.html . Maloni worked closely with Manafort.
Rick Gates. Former campaign staffer. Charged with conspiracy and making false statements in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manafort-and-former-business-partner-asked-to-surrender-in-connection-with-special-counsel-probe/2017/10/30/6fe051f0-bd67-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html . Gates was a longtime ally of Manafort who joined him on the campaign.
Carter Page. Former campaign adviser. Sent a letter .. https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/carter_page_hpsci_hearing_transcript_nov_2_2017.pdf .. to Mueller’s team in October. Page was under surveillance .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/01/31/what-we-know-about-the-warrant-to-surveil-carter-page/ .. by the FBI for his contacts with Russian actors beginning in October 2016. In a letter sent to Mueller’s team last year (along with House and Senate committees), Page demanded information about that warrant.
George Papadopoulos. Former campaign adviser. Admitted lying to the FBI in October .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/10/30/timeline-how-a-trump-adviser-tried-to-work-with-the-russian-government/ . Papadopoulos had repeated interactions with Russia-linked individuals and appears to have precipitated the entire FBI investigation when he told an Australian diplomat in the spring of 2016 that he knew of compromising material the Russians had on Hillary Clinton.
Serves in the administration
Several senior intelligence officials — CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Security Council head Keith Kellogg, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and NSA Director Mike Rogers — spoke with Mueller’s team at some point last year. Coats and Rogers were identified in reporting as having been asked by Trump to put pressure on Comey to end the investigation into Flynn.
No longer serves in the administration
Mark Corallo. Former legal team spokesman. Due to speak with team soon. Corallo had the conversation with Hicks about the June 2016 emails. He left his position in July 2017 after details of the Trump Tower meeting were revealed. (Corallo technically worked for Trump’s private legal team and not the administration, but we’re slotting him in here.)
James B. Comey. Former FBI director. Spoke with team in June or July .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/24/cia-director-mike-pompeo-mueller-trump-russia . Comey obviously has detailed information about his interactions with Trump. As head of the FBI in 2016, he was responsible for its counterintelligence investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.
Sally Yates. Former deputy attorney general. Spoke with team in July .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/investigators-interview-sally-yates-about-white-house-meetings-1513034375 . Yates was involved in early conversations about Flynn’s interview with the FBI and responsible the counterintelligence investigation until Sessions was confirmed as attorney general.
Other people
Wayne Holland. Real estate agent. Testified before grand jury in October .. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/27/paul-manafort-realtor-russia-probe-robert-mueller-244261 . Holland sold real estate to Manafort and presumably provided information central to the Mueller team’s investigation into money laundering.
Simona Mangiante. Papadopoulos’ fiancee. Spoke with team last year .. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/367748-papadopoulos-fiancee-interviewed-by-mueller-says-she-talked . It’s not clear what Mangiante provided information about.
Rinat Akhmetshin. Lobbyist tied to .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/rinat-akhmetshin-russia-trump-meeting.html .. Russian intelligence. Spoke with team in August .. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/russian-american-lobbyist-rinat-akhmetshin-appeared-before-robert-muellers-grand-jury/article/2633042 . Akhmetshin attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
George Nader. Spoke with team more than once .. https://www.axios.com/scoop-muellers-interest-in-a-mysterious-white-house-visitor-1516568389-6d406353-c96b-438f-99dc-9d9dc31413de.html . Nader’s role is unclear. Axios reported on his ties to the White House:
-
“Nader visited the White House frequently during the early months of the Trump administration. He became friendly with former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, visiting his office regularly. A source familiar with the White House meetings said Jared Kushner also met Nader. After asking around about Nader, Kushner decided not to continue meeting with him, according to the same source.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/01/who-we-know-has-spoken-with-the-mueller-investigation/?utm_term=.8e79ac02b13c
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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