Trump Aides, Seeking Leverage, Investigate Mueller’s Investigators<br />During an interview with on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he was aware<br />that members of Mr. Mueller’s team had potential conflicts of interest and would make the information available “at some point.”<br />Mr. Trump also said Mr. Mueller would be going outside his mandate if he begins investigating<br />matters unrelated to Russia, like the president’s personal finances.<br />By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, MAGGIE HABERMAN and MATT APUZZOJULY 20, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — President Trump’s lawyers and aides are scouring the professional<br />and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation — or even build a case to fire Mr. Mueller or get some members of his team recused, according to three people with knowledge of the research effort.<br />The effort to investigate the investigators is another sign of a looming showdown between Mr. Trump<br />and Mr. Mueller, who has assembled a team of high-powered prosecutors and agents to examine whether any of Mr. Trump’s advisers aided Russia’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.<br />A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Jay Sekulow, declined to address the potential conflicts he<br />and the other lawyers for Mr. Trump have uncovered about Mr. Mueller’s team.<br />Both Mr. Trump and his aides have said publicly they are watching closely to ensure<br />Mr. Mueller’s investigation remains narrowly focused on last year’s election.
