Special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been investigating Russian election meddling and whether the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government, is reportedly just "tying up loose ends" before revealing his findings from the 19-month long probe.
Sources close to the matter told Yahoo News correspondent Michael Isikoff, who wrote the book Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, that the investigation will be reaching its climax in the upcoming weeks.
On Tuesday Mueller's office is expected to recommend sentencing for President Donald Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in a new court filing. Flynn was in the White House for less than a month before he was fired for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time.The court document should indicate the extent to which Flynn has cooperated with Mueller's investigation.
Memos are also expected to be released later this week on former Trump confidants Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, both of whom pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes as a result of the Mueller probe.
Last week Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in his second plea agreement in the past four months. Trump's former attorney admitted that he had lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about Trump's business dealings with Russia as Trump ran for president. It was revealed that the real estate mogul was still negotiating a possible Trump Tower deal in Moscow one month before he became the Republican presidential nominee. In his court statement, Cohen said that he had lied "out of loyalty" to the president.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. He told the judge that he made hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDuggal "at the direction" of Trump shortly before the 2016 election.
Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, also pleaded guilty to several federal crimes and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and Mueller's inquiry. Manafort admitted to conspiracy, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, along with other charges of money laundering and bank fraud.
But Manafort had allegedly lied to federal prosecutors, breaking the plea deal he made with Mueller. It has not been revealed, yet, what Manafort allegedly lied about.
As Mueller gets closer to the end of his investigation, the president has doubled down on his attacks on Mueller and his probe, which he has repeatedly called a "witch hunt."
"Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don't want the truth, they only want lies. The truth is very bad for their mission!" Trump tweeted on Monday morning.
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Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more
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