Mueller dropped a bombshell in his list of questions for Trump in the Russia probe
- The special counsel Robert Mueller dropped a significant revelation in his list of questions for President Donald Trump.
- Mueller is reportedly interested in knowing more from Trump about possible outreach from the Trump campaign, including former chairman Paul Manafort, to Russia for help during the 2016 election.
- Until now, public reporting and testimony has indicated that any offers of assistance between the campaign and Russia came from Moscow's end.
- Mueller's question suggests he has evidence showing that members of the campaign, particularly Manafort, reached out to Russia or Russia-linked actors.
- Thirteen out of the 48 questions Mueller plans to ask Trump deal with collusion.
The vast majority of the 48 questions the special counsel Robert Mueller plans to ask President Donald Trump during a potential interview have been public knowledge for some time, with one major exception.
Toward the end of the list, which was published by The New York Times late Monday, was the following: "What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by [former campaign chairman] Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?"
There has been no public reporting indicating that the Trump campaign reached out to Russia or Russia-linked individuals for help during the campaign. Any known offers of assistance between the campaign and Russia - like a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and communications involving former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos - began from Russia's end.
Mueller's inclusion of a question about outreach from the campaign's side, specifically from Manafort, to Russia suggests he has information that would prompt such a question.
Manafort and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, were charged with dozens of counts related to financial crimes, conspiracy against the US, and failure to register as foreign agents.
While Manafort maintains his innocence, Gates pleaded guilty in February to two counts related to conspiracy and making false statements to the FBI. His plea deal indicated at the time that he had something of significant value to offer Mueller, experts said.
Gates also sat for a "Queen for a Day" interview with Mueller, during which a defendant answers any and all questions from investigators, including those about their own case and any other criminal activity they may have witnessed.
Mueller is digging deep on possible collusion
Mueller's question about outreach from the campaign to Russia is just one out of 13 such inquiries related to possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow during and after the election.
The rest of his questions focus largely on events involving Manafort, the GOP strategist and informal Trump adviser Roger Stone, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Mueller wants to know more from Trump about:
- The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Manafort, Kushner, Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., and Russian lobbyists who promised dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
- The meeting was pitched as being "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."
- Prosecutors are reportedly interested in finding out when Trump became aware of the meeting, as well as his involvement in crafting a misleading statement Trump Jr. initially offered in response to reports of the meeting.
- Trump's 2013 trip to Moscow, and his interactions while there with the Azerbaijani-Russian developer Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, as well as Russian officials.
- According to the unverified Trump-Russia dossier, Russian intelligence operatives filmed Trump engaging in salacious sexual acts with Russian prostitutes during his trip and used the tape to blackmail the future president.
- Trump's involvement in Cohen's and the Russian businessman Felix Sater's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the height of the election.
- Trump signed a letter of intent to pursue the deal, and Sater confirmed in March that the Trump Organization was actively negotiating with a sanctioned Russian bank to secure financing for the deal during the campaign.
- Discussions during the campaign regarding a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Papadopoulos said during a March 31, 2016, meeting of Trump's foreign policy team that he had contacts in the UK who could help arrange a summit between Trump and Putin. J.D. Gordon, a Trump adviser who was at the meeting, has said then-Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions immediately shot down the idea.
- But according to investigative reporters Michael Isikoff's and David Corn's book, "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump," Papadopoulos told the FBI that Trump found the proposal "interesting" and personally asked him to try and arrange the meeting.
- Discussions during the campaign about sanctions on Russia.
- The Trump-Russia dossier said that during the Trump adviser Carter Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow, Igor Sechin, the CEO of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft, offered Page the brokerage of 19% in Rosneft in exchange for the US lifting sanctions on Russia.
- Page denied the allegation but later told the House Intelligence Committee he "may have briefly" discussed the potential sale of a stake in Rosneft with Andrey Baranov, the company's head of investor relations.
- Asked whether he had ever directly expressed support for the idea of lifting US sanctions on Russia with Baranov, Page replied: "Not directly."
- In December, Rosneft signed a deal selling 19.5% of its shares to unknown buyers. The next day, Page traveled to Moscow to meet with "top managers" at Rosneft.
- The same month, the Obama administration announced new sanctions on Russia. Later that day, then incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn called then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to talk about sanctions. The next day, Russia announced it would not retaliate against the US.
- Trump's involvement in a change to the 2016 GOP platform regarding arming Ukraine against Russian aggression.
- According to the Trump-Russia dossier, the campaign allegedly agreed to soften US support for Ukraine in exchange for the Kremlin releasing damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
- During the Republican National Convention in July 2016, an amendment to the GOP platform proposed that the party commit to sending "lethal weapons" to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russia's aggression. The document was ultimately altered to say "provide appropriate assistance" before it was included in the official party platform.
- Trump said he was "not involved" in the decision.
- The DNC hack and subsequent dissemination of stolen materials, as well as communications between Stone, his associates, WikiLeaks, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
- Stone is known to have communicated with the Russian military intelligence-linked hacker Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks during and after the election.
- Trump Jr. was also in touch with WikiLeaks during the election.
- Trump repeatedly praised WikiLeaks during and after the campaign, and he publicly called on Russian hackers to find and release thousands of Clinton's deleted emails.
- Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that he had learned Russia had compromising information about Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.
- The FBI launched the Russia investigation after learning about Papadopoulos' conversation with the diplomat.
- Kushner's attempts during the transition to set up a back channel between the Trump team and Russia using Russian diplomatic facilities.
- A January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Trump adviser Erik Prince, representatives of the United Arab Emirates, and a Russian investor close to Putin.
- According to the Middle East adviser George Nader - who attended the meeting and has testified in the Russia probe - Emirati officials believed Prince represented the Trump team and that the Russian investor represented Putin.
- The Washington Post reported last year that the meeting's purpose was to create a back channel between Trump and Russia, and Emirati officials participated in the hopes of helping to encourage Russia to distance itself from Iran, a major Kremlin ally.
- A Ukraine-Russia "peace plan" proposed in the early days of the Trump presidency that appeared to favor Moscow.
- Sater and Cohen was instrumental in pushing for the proposal, according to multiple media reports, and Cohen offered at least four different explanations for his involvement.