Displaying items by tag: probe

(New York)

One of the big overarching questions regarding the Mueller probe over the last few weeks has been two-part: will Trump try to fire Mueller, and will the Senate step in to protect Mueller from said firing. Well, one half of the answer is now clear. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has made clear that the Senate will take no action to protect Mueller from whatever moves Trump might make. McConnell said “I am the one who decides what we take to the floor … That’s my responsibility as majority leader. And we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate”.

FINSUM: The one Caveat here is that McConnell thought he said protecting Mueller was unnecessary because he did not believe Trump would try to fire him, which slightly leaves the door open to a change of position.

(New York)

There is a lot of excitement and anxiety about the investigation into Michael Cohen, president Trump’s personal lawyer. Many fear that investigators may get him to spill all details about his dealings with Trump. The media has been hyping the idea, with magazines like Esquire saying “We can safely speculate that Cohen knows everything: the money, the scams, the women, the Russians. All of it”. However, Bloomberg reports that Cohen is not the biggest fish investigators could catch and that there are many close to Trump who know much more about his affairs than Cohen. In reality, another lawyer named Jason Greenblatt, who worked as in-house counsel for the Trump organization for almost 20 years, probably knows much more.

FINSUM: He may not know the most, but it seems like Cohen probably knows enough to get Trump in even hotter water.

(Washington)

Though he had remained silent on the issue for three days, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has finally spoken out on the Trump-Mueller tension. McConnell held a press conference yesterday to commend the job Robert Mueller is doing and to admonish the President to let him finish his investigation. McConnell said Mueller “should be allowed to finish his job”, and that “I don’t think Bob Mueller is going anywhere … I have a lot of confidence in him”. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also said that if Trump tried to fire Mueller without cause than it would be an impeachable offense.

FINSUM: We think Trump is sharp enough not to try to fire Mueller as it would create an absolute political nightmare.

(Washington)

There have been relatively few updates on the Trump probe in recent weeks. Ever since the debate over whether Trump should let Mueller interview him calmed down, there has been little news. Now, reports are coming out that a group of investors in the Kushner family business—the family of Trump’s son-in-law—have been subpoenaed by the IRS and the Department of Justice. However, at this point, reports say the subpoenas are unrelated to the more broad probe into the White House’s connection to Russia.

FINSUM: Hard to see what is really going on here, but suffice it to say that the overall probe is deepening.

(Washington)

A couple of weeks ago all the talk was about how President Trump was eager to have a one on one interview with Robert Mueller in order to set the record straight. Now, the reports are shifting that Trump should not speak to Mueller. Republicans think not speaking would be wise considering new documents which reportedly show bias in the investigation. One explanation of the recent reports is that Trump is trying to see if not speaking to Mueller would be acceptable to the public, or whether it would hurt his image.

FINSUM: If you think this whole investigation is a witch hunt, then it makes sense that Trump should not take the risk of incriminating himself by talking to what is assumed to be a biased investigator. If you have the opposite view, then not talking looks like he has something to hide.