United States intelligence agencies, as part of routine surveillance of foreign agents, some operating within the U.S., became aware that Russian agents were in contact with members of the Trump campaign and other Trump associates and family members. This, along with the conclusion that the Russian government was engaged in actions to influence the 2016 Presidential election in favor of Trump, caused the FBI to begin investigating links between the Russian influencers and the Trump campaign. A key moment in the FBI investigation was when George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to Trump, told an Australian official that the campaign was receiving information about Secretary of State Clinton from the Russians. This was the catalyst for the FBI to seek a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Carter Page, a Trump associate. Later Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, became aware of links between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign and reported his findings to the FBI. (Steele was originally hired by a Republican group to investigate Trump, but was later funded by the Democratic National Committee [DNC]). Attorney General Jeff Sessions was also mentioned as possibly having made illegal contacts with Russians during the campaign, so he recused himself from oversight of the investigation.
Shortly thereafter Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. This was when the appointment of Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate connections between Russians and the Trump campaign happened. Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, without apparently consulting with Sessions or Trump, announced that Mueller, a former FBI Director, would be heading up the investigation.
Despite Trump's repeated claims that it's been proved that there is "no collusion", Mueller's team continues to move forward, with a number of guilty pleas and indictments of Trump campaign officials and associates. ("Collusion" is not a legal term and has no meaning within the context of this investigation.) The investigation continues to find examples of illegal or questionable contact between Trump associates and Russians, as well as financial improprieties, including money laundering.
Trump's continual attacks on Mueller and his investigators is also troubling. He has fired two of the top FBI officials, Comey and Andrew McCabe, who were involved in the investigation pre-Mueller. It has been leaked that he has discussed firing Rosenstein in order to put someone in place who can control Mueller, or even firing Mueller himself. He regularly excoriates Sessions for recusing himself, suggesting that if he knew about the recusal beforehand he would have nominated someone else for Attorney General. Trump criticizes Rosenstein and Mueller for conducting a partisan attack, even though they are both Republicans. The judge and US Attorney who approved the raid on Cohen are both Republicans appointed by Trump. Trump's tweets are a barrage of attacks seeking to undermine the investigation. Obstruction of justice is one of the things that Mueller is looking at. It's pretty scary when the one being investigating can fire the investigator.
Will Trump be the ultimate target?
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