Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Sunday defended its work after lawyers for President Trump’s transition team accused investigators of improperly obtaining thousands of emails from transition officials.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Sunday defended its work after lawyers for President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE’s transition team accused investigators of improperly obtaining thousands of emails from transition officials.
“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,” Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, said in a statement to The Hill.
Axios reported Saturday that Mueller’s team is of tens of thousands of emails form the Trump transition team, including messages from Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as well as other members of the transition’s political leadership and foreign policy team.
Mueller’s prosecutors reportedly used the emails to question witnesses, and are also looking to the messages to confirm information and follow new leads.
Axios reported that the special counsel obtained the emails from the General Services Administration, which manages presidential transition teams’ email accounts.
But in a letter to several members of Congress, Kory Langhofer, a lawyer from Trump’s transition team, said that Mueller obtained the emails illegally.
Langhofer accuses the GSA of “unlawfully produc[ing] [Trump For America’s] private materials, including privileged communications, to the Special Counsel’s Office,” according to Reuters.
Langhofer’s letter, which was sent to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calls on the committees “to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies, particularly in the context of sensitive investigations intersecting with political motives.”
Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has heated up in recent weeks after former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
The investigation has also seen Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort Paul John ManafortJudge warns Manafort not to discuss case with media Manafort involved in drafting op-ed defending his Ukrainian work: court papers Trump went off on Manafort for suggesting he should not appear on Sunday shows: report MORE, indicted on multiple charges.
