The president has often given off the appearance of digging his own hole when it comes to the Russia investigation. Instead of cooperating with the lines of inquiry from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Congressional committee leaders, the president has continuously sought to throw roadblocks in front of the investigation, referring to the whole scandal as a “witch hunt.”
The issue with Trump’s rhetoric, however, isn’t just that of the language itself. Trump has also faced resounding accusations of obstruction of justice, and now, there is a new report from The New York Times with yet another reason that the president should be worried about those accusations.
According to the publication, Trump spoke with two witnesses in the Russia scandal about testimony that they offered to investigators. Those witnesses included both the president’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and White House counsel Don McGahn, and Mueller’s team has been informed of the conversations.
The interaction between the president and Priebus came first. Back in December, months after the former RNC head was unceremoniously let go by the president, he was again back at the White House for a meeting with the president, at which time Trump pressed the former White House chief of staff about how an October sit-down with the special counsel’s office had gone.
Priebus reportedly told the president that investigators had been “courteous and professional” but “did not say what he had told investigators.” Priebus’ replacement John Kelly was reportedly there for that conversation but The Times reports that it’s unclear whether or not he sought to put a stop to the conversation.
The interaction between the president and McGahn came in January of this year, according to The Times, after an article was published by The New York Times insisting that the White House counsel had been prepared to quit over an order from the president to see Special Counsel Mueller fired last year.
The president first had the now disgraced former White House staff secretary Rob Porter tell McGahn that he should release a statement countering the story. After McGahn declined to issue a public statement against the article, the president confronted him personally, at which time the White House counsel acknowledged that he’d never told the president personally of his readiness to quit over the order to see Mueller fired but said that he had told other White House officials.
The president insisted at the time that he hadn’t actually wanted to see Mueller fired, forcing McGahn to reportedly try and remind him of the occasion.
These incidents figure in a broader question of whether or not the president is guilty of obstruction of justice, a question hinging on issues like the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey and a deceptive statement released by the Trump team about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
None of these actions are generally undertaken by innocent people.
Mueller has yet to interview the president personally, but there are reports that he’s interested in doing so. The president, for his part, has insisted that he’s open to the possibility of sitting down with investigators with the special counsel’s office.
In the meantime, he has brought charges against a selection of former Trump aides, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
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