Republicans have also seized on the exchange to suggest the Mueller team is biased against Trump. The existence of the text messages, disclosed in news reports earlier this month, provided a line of attack for Trump, who used the revelation to disparage FBI leadership as politically tainted. Hundreds of the messages, which surfaced in a justice department investigation of the FBI’s inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, were provided to congressional committees. Mueller also has the power to prosecute federal crimes. If the report provides evidence of criminal activity by top Trump campaign staff or potentially by the president himself – who has denied all wrongdoing – Congress could come under intense pressure to mount a prosecution. They can also call high-profile witnesses for questioning, schedule public hearings and release testimony or other information.Īt some stage, Mueller is likely to submit his report to Congress. The committees (House intelligence plus Senate intelligence and judiciary) may issue reports at the end of their investigations. Meanwhile three congressional committees are conducting parallel, if less focused, investigations of the Trump presidential campaign, Russian hacking, the firing of FBI director James Comey and related issues. This investigation has no set end date, but Mueller appears to be moving quickly, and many observers expect him to issue a report of some kind in 2018, although any talk of a timeline is speculative. The investigation has two spearheads: special counsel Robert Mueller, operating under the aegis of the justice department (executive branch) and congressional committees (legislative branch).īy far the greatest amount of pressure on the White House so far is coming from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose team of 17 prosecutors was authorized in May to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" and related matters.
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