The circle Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been casting around Donald Trump has grown tighter and tighter. Now, he has subpoenaed emails, text messages, telephone logs, work documents, and other records from Trump associates going all the way back to November 2015. This means things are getting very uncomfortable for the president.
Trump’s former communications director, Hope Hicks, resigned after a day -long interview with a congressional intelligence committee. She was more than an employee to the president, because she has been with him since the beginning of his presidential run. Not only that, she has been like a daughter to him.
Plus, the text-only commander-in-chief relied on her to process all of his emails, so she was at the heart of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The special counsel expanded the scope of his investigation to include possible links between the Russian meddling and the Trump campaign’s involvement.
Mueller even expanded the investigation to Trump’s and his son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner’s, financial records and contacts with the Russians.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested various documents tied to Trump and a number of his associates, according to multiple reports.
The special counsel also wants all the communications between the witnesses and Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski, Rick Gates, Steve Bannon, Michael Cohen, Carter Page, and Keith Schiller.
Fundraiser for the Trump campaign, Elliot Broidy’s spokesman told The New York Times:
‘We have reason to believe this hack was sponsored and carried out by registered and unregistered agents of Qatar seeking to punish Mr. Broidy for his strong opposition to state-sponsored terrorism.’
In February, Mueller unsealed the indictments against 13 Russian nationals. The former FBI director alleged that they plotted to influence the presidential election with trolls and fake news stories. The special counsel also filed a superseding indictment against Manafort.
At the same time, Mueller convinced Manafort’s associate, Gates, to flip for the prosecution in return for a reduced sentence. Manafort was Trump’s presidential campaign chairman for nearly half of a year. Thus far, Manafort has refused to give state’s evidence. Some speculate that he anticipates a presidential pardon for his loyalty.
Manafort was a consultant to third-world dictators before he came onboard with Trump. The consultant had millions of dollars of debt when he offered to work for Trump – at no cost. Manafort had promised a Chicago banker to loan him $13 million to buy expensive New York real estate in exchange for a White House job. Then, Trump’s campaign manager leveraged those loans to get millions more.
Donald Trump has always called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt” and claimed he was completely innocent of collusion. His problem may be that the special counsel has been looking into other crimes, including money laundering.
Trump bought a Florida estate then sold it to a Russian oligarch for a profit of $60 million at a time when the real estate mogul was in dire need of money.
Mueller’s latest witness was a Lebanese-American businessman and adviser to the ruler, for all practical purposes, of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). George Nader has frequently visited the White House since Trump took office.
The special counsel has questioned Nader and put pressure on other witnesses to locate any attempts by the UAE to purchase political influence with the Trump administration by campaign contributions.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Alex Wong.
