There’s more trouble for special counsel Robert Mueller.
A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s transition team has accused Mueller of illegally obtaining transition documents as part of his probe into alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
According to Fox News, attorney Kory Langhofer of the group Trump For America said the General Services Administration engaged in “unlawful conduct.”
Here’s what happened:
Langhofer told Fox that the GSA turned over thousands of emails to Mueller’s investigation when it had no legal authority to do so. The GSA “did not own or control the records in question,” Langhofer said.
TRENDING: Trey Gowdy Unloads on Deputy AG, Teaches Him the Meaning of “Interest Free” Counsels
For the government agency to give them to the investigation team, and for the special counsel’s team to accept them, could constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures, Fox News reported.
In a letter Langhofer wrote to House and Senate committees — and obtained by Fox News — the lawyer claimed the special counsel’s investigation had used information it did not have a right to legally.
According to Fox, The Associated Press reported that the GSA had turned over a flash drive after receiving a request from Mueller’s office on Sept. 1. Among those documents were emails written by or to Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor in the Trump White House who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.
“We understand that the special counsel’s office has subsequently made extensive use of the materials it obtained from the GSA, including materials that are susceptible to privilege claims,” Langhofer wrote in the letter to the congressional committees, according to Fox.
Langhofer told Fox News on Saturday that the transition team is closely monitoring any new developments.
“This morning we sent a letter to Congress concerning the unauthorized sharing of private and transition emails with the Mueller team,” he noted.
But Mueller’s office denies any wrongdoing.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller’s office, said “When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process.”
On the other hand, Trump transition lawyers say they have proof that the documents were obtained without permission.
In the letter to Congress, which was published by Politico, the Trump team claimed it never received any requests from the GSA to obtain the documents. And it explained why there is a problem with the GSA’s cooperation with the special counsel’s office.
“As discussed above, the GSA’s unlawful production of TFA’s internal records was exacerbated by the Special Counsel’s Office failure to preserve and respect the legal privileges that attach to a large number of those documents,” the letter stated. “More generally, however, the GSA’s and the Special Counsel’s Office’s misconduct in this matter demonstrates why investigators and government attorneys, who in many cases are not entirely neutral, should not be trusted to decide without proper oversight which records belonging to private parties are privileged. “
That last sentence “should not be trusted” is damning.
This new development comes amid ongoing trouble for Mueller’s team.
At the beginning of December, the news became public that Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent, was removed from Mueller’s Russia probe over the summer after it was revealed that he sent anti-Trump text messages while on the job to an FBI lawyer with whom he was engaged in an adulterous affair.
At one point, Strzok even called Trump an “idiot.”
Rumors are already flying around Capitol Hill that Mueller could be fired by Trump. Whatever the political fallout of that could be, news that Mueller’s office might have been skirting the law in its already questionable investigation isn’t going to help Mueller’s case — or the Democrats’ who engineered his appointment.
Share this story on Facebook and Twitter if you think Mueller should be fired from the investigation.
What do you think this report will do to the special counsel probe? Scroll down to comment below!
via Conservative Tribune
Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: http://ift.tt/2gEOIzE