A report from the New York Times claims that special counsel Robert Mueller is looking at tweets sent out by President Donald Trump trying to find evidence that he obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey. Mueller is looking at negative tweets aimed at Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mueller reportedly wants to question the president about his tweets and potential witness tampering.
The special counsel’s investigators have told Mr. Trump’s lawyers they are examining the tweets under a wide-ranging obstruction-of-justice law beefed up after the Enron accounting scandal, according to the three people. The investigators did not explicitly say they were examining possible witness tampering, but the nature of the questions they want to ask the president, and the fact that they are scrutinizing his actions under a section of the United States Code titled “Tampering With a Witness, Victim, or an Informant,” raised concerns for his lawyers about Mr. Trump’s exposure in the investigation.
The Times report says Mueller's goal is to use the tweets to show the president engaged in a pattern of behavior aimed at obstructing the special counsel's investigation.
President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani dismissed the report and said the Trump did nothing wrong.
“If you’re going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public,” Giuliani said.
Trump's legal team continues to argue that the president has the power to fire officials for any reason.
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