Mueller Impanels Grand Jury in Russia Investigation. Don Jr first up on that Summer Jam Screen…

Report: Mueller Subpoenas Manafort’s Former Ukraine PR Colleagues

Special counsel Robert Mueller has issued grand jury subpoenas compelling testimony from public relations executives who worked with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on a campaign promoting a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, NBC News reported Friday.

Several unname people with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC that Mueller’s team has asked for documents and testimony from firms who assisted Manafort’s lobbying campaign, which ran from 2012 to 2014. Manafort retroactively registered as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of Ukraine’s Party of Regions and the country’s deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych.

Manafort has emerged in recent weeks as a linchpin in Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, potential collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and the financial dealings of various Trump associates.

FBI agents raided a home he owns in Alexandria, Virginia last month, and he is under federal scrutiny for his work for the Party of Regions, his offshore banking transactions, and mounting questions about whether he used his complex web of real estate dealings to launder money from Eastern Europe.

Manafort also attended a pivotal June 2016 sit-down with Donald Trump, Jr., President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and several Russian operatives, one of whom claimed to information that would hurt Hillary Clinton as part of a Kremlin effort to help Trump’s campaign.

GOP Representative Puts Forward Proposal To ? Mueller Probe

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has put forward a provision that would make deep cuts to resources committed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russian officials, Politico reported.

The amendment is one of hundreds filed as part of the government spending package the House is set to review when it returns from recess next week.

The proposal would end funding for the investigation within six months of passage and would prohibit the probe from touching any event that occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his campaign.

“Congress should use its spending power to clarify the scope and limit the duration of this investigation,” he said in a statement to Politico, calling the investigation a “fishing expedition.”

The move comes just a day after Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), head Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told USA Today that the committee should have “two to three times” its current resources for the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

NYT’s Ken Vogel: WH Staff Worried that Mueller Has Colleagues ‘Wearing a Wire’

Yesterday, Vogel surreptitiously encountered two senior Trump Lawyers at a D.C. steakhouse “loudly” discussing apparent divisions on Team Trump over the best way to proceed with the Russia investigation and filed a juicy report in today’s NY Times.

Vogel appeared on CNN this morning with host Poppy Harlow who asked the DC based reporter to discuss the buried “nugget” that White House staffers are so concerned about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that some staffers may be “wearing a wire.”

The NY Times politics reporter didn’t discuss the specifics of the “wearing a wire” report so much, but he did add that the reported paranoia surrounding alleged listening devices suggests that ongoing deliberations with in the Trump administration have become so fraught that “there is suspicion about which sides people are on.”

Reports: Mueller’s Team Interviewed Rod Rosenstein About Comey Firing

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the firing of James Comey as FBI director over the summer, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night, citing people familiar with the Mueller probe.

CNN later confirmed that Mueller’s office has interviewed Rosenstein as part of its Russia probe. The interview took place in either June or July, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mueller’s team has been looking into whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice by firing Comey.

Rosenstein sat for an interview for an investigation he technically oversees as the deputy attorney general.Asked about this, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior suggested that there is still no reason for Rosenstein to recuse himself from the probe.

“As the deputy attorney general has said numerous times, if there comes a time when he needs to recuse, he will. However, nothing has changed,” Prior told the Journal.

Rosenstein discussed with Trump his concerns about Comey in May, and promptly wrote a memo outlining the reasons for Comey’s firing at Trump’s direction, as has been previously reported.

In his interview with Mueller’s team, Rosenstein said that Trump at the time acknowledged that firing Comey would not end the Russia probe and that the decision could create problems for the president, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Reuters: Trump Dossier Inquiry Now Part Of Mueller’s Russia Probe

The FBI investigation into a controversial dossier that lobbed a bevy of Russia-related accusations against President Trump and his associates has now fallen under the purview of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The report is based on three unnamed sources with knowledge of the inquiry, according to Reuters.

The dossier, which was put together by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, was commissioned during the presidential campaign by private donors. The private research company that was hired to put it together has stayed mum on the donors’ identity. It’s been reported that the research was started by a GOP donor during the primary campaign and then Democratic donors took interest in it during the general election.

Its contents included many salacious claims of Russian-Trump collusion that were shopped around to media organizations last year, but reporters have said they struggled verifying the allegations. Buzzfeed posted a version of the dossier in its entirety after CNN reported in January that federal investigators were themselves trying to verify some of its claims as part of the FBI’s Russia probe. At least a few of the claims in the dossier line up with what is now known about Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

The special counsel’s investigation, which was launched after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, has now taken over that investigation, and per the Reuters report, the inquiries into the dossier specifically.

The dossier has also been of interest to the congressional Russia investigations. Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said Wednesday that his committee had “hit a wall” in its efforts to verify the dossier because Steele will not talk to them. House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has sought information from the Justice Department about its dossier-related work, despite ostensibly stepping down from that committee’s Russia probe.

Additionally, multiple lawsuits have been filed by figures mentioned in the dossier against Steele, the private research firm Fusion GPS and Buzzfeed for publishing it.