Limited FBI investigation of Kavanaugh offers road map for how Trump could try to constrain Mueller
By James Hohmann
October 1 at 9:10 AM
With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve
THE BIG IDEA: President Trump’s disputed insistence over the weekend, echoed by his top aides, that he’s done nothing to constrain the scope of the FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh underscores why many national security lawyers and law enforcement veterans are nervous about the future of special counsel Bob Mueller’s probe if Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein loses his job.
Trump does not need to fire Mueller to curtail the ongoing investigation into whether he sought to obstruct justice or if his campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The president calls it a “witch hunt,” but he recognizes that there would be immense political blowback — including street protests and possibly the defection of moderate Republicans — if he got rid of Mueller.
Because Jeff Sessions played a key role on Trump’s campaign and had Russian contacts he did not disclose during his confirmation hearing, the attorney general recused himself from the investigation. That means Rosenstein oversees the special counsel’s probe. If he leaves, whoever replaces him could theoretically limit the scope of what Mueller can explore or who he can indict while also scaling back the amount of resources available.
And the public wouldn’t necessarily find out because such moves are not required to be immediately disclosed, according to several experts familiar with the special counsel law from both parties. Sources on the inside might leak that Mueller’s investigation was being undermined, but Trump and White House press people could vehemently deny these reports. The result might be the kind of confusion about what’s really going on that we’re left with this morning vis-a-vis Kavanaugh.
“The White House is not micromanaging this process,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on “Fox News Sunday.” She said it was Senate Republicans who are “dictating the terms” and that the president wants the FBI to do whatever they “need to do.” She said she was not aware of a list of people the White House counsel has provided to the FBI. “This can’t become a fishing expedition like the Democrats would like to see it be,” she continued.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/10/01/daily-202-limited-fbi-investigation-of-kavanaugh-offers-road-map-for-how-trump-could-try-to-constrain-mueller/5bb1314a1b326b7c8a8d177b/
= new reply since forum marked as read