FBI
Director Robert Mueller testifies
before the House Judiciary Committee
hearing on Federal Bureau of
Investigation oversight on Capitol
Hill in Washington June 13, 2013.
Mueller said on Thursday that the
U.S. government is doing everything
it can to hold confessed leaker
Edward Snowden accountable for
splashing surveillance secrets
across the pages of newspapers
worldwide. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
Special
counsel
obtains
thousands
of Trump
transition
emails
By
STEPHEN
BRAUN
and
CHAD DAY
WASHINGTON
-
Special
counsel
Robert
Mueller’s
investigation
into
Russian
contacts
with
President
Donald
Trump’s
campaign
has
gained
access
to
thousands
of
emails
sent and
received
by Trump
officials
before
the
start of
his
administration,
the
general
counsel
for
Trump’s
transition
organization
said.
Mueller’s
investigators
obtained
the
emails
from the
General
Services
Administration,
a
federal
agency
that
stored
the
material,
rather
than
request
them
from
Trump’s
still-existing
transition
group,
Trump
for
America,
Kory
Langhofer,
the
group’s
general
counsel,
said in
a letter
sent to
two
congressional
committees.
Langhofer
said in
his
letter
to two
congressional
committees
that the
GSA had
improperly
provided
the
transition
records
to
Mueller’s
team,
which he
said has
been
“actively
using”
the
emails.
In the
letter
to the
Republican
chairmen
of the
House
Oversight
and the
Senate
Homeland
Security
committees,
Langhofer
contends
that the
disclosure
by GSA
was
“unauthorized,”
and it
considers
the
documents
private
and
privileged
and not
government
property.
While
conservatives
have
been
critical
of
Mueller’s
probe of
Russian
activities
during
the 2016
campaign,
Trump
said
Sunday
afternoon
that he
has no
plans to
fire
Mueller.
The
president
did
criticize
the fact
that
Mueller
had
gained
access
to
thousands
of
emails
sent and
received
by Trump
officials
before
the
start of
his
administration.
He
said it
was “not
looking
good”
and
again
stressed
that
there
was “no
collusion”
with
Russia —
an
important
question
the
probe is
examining.
The
documents
were
provided
to
Mueller’s
team by
the GSA
in
September
in
response
to
requests
from the
FBI, but
the
transition
team
didn’t
learn
about it
until
last
week,
Langhofer
said.
The
tens of
thousands
of
emails
in
question
pertain
to 13
senior
Trump
transition
officials.
Many of
the
emails
that
Mueller’s
investigators
have now
include
national
security
discussions
about
possible
Trump
international
aims as
well as
candid
assessments
of
candidates
for top
government
posts,
said
those
familiar
with the
transition.
They
spoke to
The
Associated
Press on
condition
of
anonymity
because
of the
records’
sensitivity.
Langhofer
also
said
that a
GSA
official
appointed
by Trump
in May
had
assured
the
transition
in June
that any
request
for
records
from
Mueller’s
office
would be
referred
to the
transition’s
attorneys.
According
to
Langhofer,
the
assurance
was made
by
then-GSA
General
Counsel
Richard
Beckler,
who was
hospitalized
in
August
and has
since
died. A
copy of
the
letter
was
obtained
by the
AP.
But
late
Saturday,
another
GSA
official
present
for the
conversation
told
Buzzfeed
News
that
there
was
nothing
improper
about
the
disclosure
of the
emails
to
Mueller’s
team.
The GSA
has
provided
office
space
and
other
aid to
presidential
transitions
in
recent
years
and
typically
houses
electronic
transition
records
in its
computer
system.
GSA
Deputy
Counsel
Lenny
Loewentritt,
who
Langhofer
blames
along
with
other
GSA
career
staff
for
providing
the
transition
documents
to the
FBI,
told
Buzzfeed
that
Beckler
didn’t
make a
commitment
to the
transition
team
that
requests
from law
enforcement
for
materials
would be
routed
through
transition
lawyers.
Transition
officials
signed
agreements
that
warn
them
that
materials
kept on
the
government
servers
are
subject
to
monitoring
and
auditing,
Loewentritt
told
Buzzfeed,
and
there’s
no
expectation
of
privacy.
Late
Saturday,
Mueller’s
spokesman,
Peter
Carr,
said the
special
counsel’s
office
has
followed
the law
when it
has
obtained
documents
during
its
investigation.
“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,”
Carr
said.
In a
statement,
Rep.
Elijah
Cummings
of
Maryland,
the
ranking
Democrat
on the
House
Oversight
and
Government
Reform
committee,
dismissed
the
transition’s
arguments
that GSA
shouldn’t
have
turned
over the
records
to
Mueller.
Among
the
officials
who used
transition
email
accounts
was
former
National
Security
Adviser
Michael
Flynn,
who
pleaded
guilty
to a
count of
making
false
statements
to FBI
agents
in
January
and is
cooperating
with
Mueller’s
investigation.
Trump
fired
Flynn in
February
for
misleading
senior
administration
officials
about
his
contacts
with
Russia’s
ambassador
to the
U.S.
Flynn
attorney
Robert
Kelner
declined
to
comment.
Jay
Sekulow,
an
attorney
on
Trump’s
personal
legal
team,
referred
questions
to the
transition
group.
Spokespeople
for GSA
didn’t
respond
to AP’s
emailed
requests
for
comment.
It’s
unclear
how
revelatory
the
email
accounts
maintained
by the
GSA will
be for
Mueller.
Several
high-level
Trump
advisers
sometimes
used
other
email
accounts,
including
their
campaign
accounts,
to
communicate
about
transition
issues
between
Election
Day and
the
inauguration.
The
special
counsel’s
office
also
obtained
at least
one iPad
as well
as
laptops
and
cellphones
that
were
used by
the
transition,
but
prosecutors
have
assured
the
transition
that
investigators
have not
pulled
emails
and
other
data
from
those
devices,
Langhofer
said. He
did not
name the
transition
officials
who used
the
devices.
The
media
site
Axios
first
reported
on the
transfer
of the
emails
to
Mueller’s
team.