Thursday marks a full year since Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to continue the work of fired FBI Director James Comey.
Rosenstein’s official appointment order gave Mueller permission to investigate any links or evidence of collaboration between the Russian government and members of the Trump campaign, any additional matters that may come up through the course of that investigation, and any evidence of attempts to interfere with the investigation itself such as perjury, obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, or destruction of evidence.
President Trump marked the occasion by lashing out on Twitter, repeating a fake "Fox and Friends" story alleging the FBI had an informant inside the Trump campaign, calling the investigation a witch hunt again, and claiming he neither colluded nor obstructed justice.
Trump tweeted: “Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI ‘SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.’ Andrew McCarthy says, ‘There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.’ If so, this is bigger than Watergate!”
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In a second Thursday morning tweet, Trump said: “Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History . . . and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction. The only Collusion was that done by Democrats who were unable to win an Election despite the spending of far more money!”
And in a third tweet, Trump said: “Despite the disgusting, illegal and unwarranted Witch Hunt, we have had the most successful first 17 month Administration in U.S. history — by far! Sorry to the Fake News Media and ‘Haters,’ but that’s the way it is!”
While the president's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called for an end to the Mueller investigation, all evidence points to the probe staying the course. As The Atlantic's Natasha Bertrand notes, it only has been a year.
To the president, the investigation may seem like it has dragged on. But the longest special-counsel probe—Iran-Contra under former President Ronald Reagan—lasted nearly seven years. The Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky inquiry involving former President Bill Clinton, which ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment in the House, lasted four years. And the investigation of the Valerie Plame affair under former President George W. Bush lasted three-and-a-half years. Mueller’s pace has been breakneck, legal experts tell me—especially for a complicated counterintelligence investigation that involves foreign nationals and the Kremlin, an adversarial government.
Bertrand details some of the most significant avenues Mueller continues to explore, including Jared Kushner's quest for a backchannel to the Kremlin; early Trump administration efforts to lift Russia sanctions; Joseph Mifsud telling George Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton; the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting; Paul Manafort's communication during the campaign about repayments to and progress briefings for Oleg Deripaska; the millions Manafort and Rick Gates collected from oligarchs over the years; Russian troll efforts to help Trump win; and Viktor Veselberg's possible payments via an American intermediary to Michael Cohen's LLC.
CNN uses the anniversary as an opportunity to take a look at, among other things, what it's like to be a witness in the Mueller probe.
Mueller's team often sets up rendezvous point with witnesses, who are then picked up in a rotating fleet of cars with tinted windows. A white sedan, a black SUV and a teal car with a dent in the side have all been used to whisk witnesses through the loading dock and into a parking garage minutes before their scheduled interviews.
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After the covert entry, lawyers and clients are confronted with a wall of lockers where visitors are instructed to stash their cell phones and other electronics before proceeding. Most of the meeting room space is a secured Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or a SCIF, so cell phones won't function inside.
Witnesses are deposited in a drab waiting room where doors are secured with electronic locks and bureaucrats are buzzing in and out.
The questioning takes place in relatively tight quarters -- conference rooms large enough to fit a table, a few chairs and little else. Mismatched tables and chairs -- all in muted tones -- look like they've come from an office surplus store and then bounced through multiple government buildings before ending up wedged between Mueller's prosecutors and their latest witness. There's no refreshment station, although interviewees are offered water.
Prosecutors take the lead on questioning witnesses, with FBI agents occasionally chiming in with facts investigators have found. Mueller himself is rarely seen, sources said. When a witness wants to confer with their lawyer, investigators step out of the room.
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Those who go to the grand jury at federal district court in Washington have a more formal experience
"It is sort of like being in a school room or a university lecture room" with "tiers of jurors" facing the witness, said one person who testified.
The three tiers of jurors represent a "mixed bag of people," the person said, describing "a non-descript group of what looked like a cross section of humanity" that lives in Washington.
After being sworn in, prosecutors come at you "methodically" with no "grandstanding," as they ask you questions or present documents for you to explain.
At the end, a simple thank you for your time is offered on behalf of the grand jury.
"You are relieved that you've done it," said the witness.
Politico goes even further, offering a look inside the FBI team working with the special counsel.
The agents who form the core of Mueller’s investigative team — who work mostly from a southwest Washington office complex whose only distinguishing feature may be the network TV camera regularly posted near the entrance — have a wide range of skills, with some specializing in financial frauds, others in counterintelligence or corruption, and still others adept at investigating computer hacking and other forms of cybercrime.
Mueller’s FBI crew appears to be a combination of agents who were already working aspects of the investigation before the former FBI director took over a year ago, either because of their expertise or their location, and a set of volunteers who jumped aboard or were invited to join as the special counsel staffed up.
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Those who said yes include Omer Meisel, a former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator who cut his teeth as a young FBI recruit probing the collapse of Enron with Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann nearly two decades ago.
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Other agents working on the Trump-Russia probe include Robert Gibbs, who’s worked Chinese espionage cases; Sherine Ebadi, who pursued a multimillion-dollar fraud at the U.S.’ biggest corporate jet maker; Jennifer Edwards, an accountant who handled internet crimes against children before joining the special counsel’s team; Jason Alberts, a public-corruption specialist who has handled high-profile cases involving the New York Police Department and the United Nations; and Brock Domin, a novice FBI agent with technology know-how, Russian language skills and experience on the ground in Moscow.
Mueller has remained mum about the FBI contingent supporting his work. His budget report released last December obscured any details on the bureau’s specific contribution. Mueller’s spokesperson won’t even give an overall number of FBI agents on the case, though Mueller’s office willingly confirmed the new attorney hires and the transfers from other Justice Department offices, putting the team of prosecutors on full-time duty at 16. The FBI declined requests to discuss its personnel working for Mueller or their backgrounds.
Read more:
Trump marks Mueller anniversary by claiming FBI ‘spied’ on his campaign (Washington Post)
The Lingering Mysteries of a Trump-Russia Conspiracy (The Atlantic)
Hot Pockets, mismatched chairs and a critical mission: Inside year one of the Mueller investigation (CNN)
Inside Mueller’s FBI team (Politico)