The Washington Post just dropped a bombshell report about Donald Trump on the evening of his sixth-month anniversary in the White House, alleging that both the president and his team of lawyers are "exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation."
According to the Post, the Trump camp is doing everything they can to prove there are too many conflicts of interest for Mueller and his team to effectively do their jobs. Sources also told the political outlet that Trump has been asking his advisers "about his power to pardon aides, family members, and even himself in connection with the probe." As the Post notes, no U.S. president has ever pardoned himself.
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"Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself..."https://t.co/wzoeBIPqSl pic.twitter.com/kdS757YhMk
— leah mcelrath ? (@leahmcelrath) July 21, 2017
The news comes just days before Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Jared Kushner will testify in a closed meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On July 19, The New York Times published an extensive interview with the president, in which he explicitly stated he considers Mueller looking into his family's finances and his tax history to be "a violation." He also told the Times that Mueller's team had a lot of political conflicts of interest, mentioning that some of the lawyers on his team donated money to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"Do you know how many conflicts of interest there are," Trump asked the Times reporters.
Trump “was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns." https://t.co/XjOcL6g38t
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) July 21, 2017
Though not mandatory for the president to release his tax returns, Trump is the first Commander-in-Chief since Jimmy Carter to withhold the financial statements. To make things worse, Republicans in Congress voted down Democratic efforts to get Trump to release 10 years of his returns.
Reminder: Congressional Republicans covered for Trump. They helped keep his tax returns a secret from the American people. They own this. https://t.co/7WRt6Jsqb5
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) July 21, 2017
According to the Post, an attorney general can terminate the special counsel should he deem a conflict of interest is in play.
During the same interview, Trump also said that he wouldn't have hired Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known that the former Alabama senator would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Sessions has since said that he intends on remaining in his position.