The White House is reported to be looking into means to hamper the investigation of Robert Mueller into its possible criminal collusion with Russia during last year’s election. No surprise:
The Trump administration is exploring whether it can use an obscure ethics rule to undermine the special counsel investigation into ties between President Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia, two people familiar with White House thinking said on Friday.
Which would be a cover-up on steroids.
Within hours of Mueller's appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said.
And Trump in January signed an executive order extending the restriction to two years. It can be waived by the Justice Department.
Why does this matter? Mueller’s former law firm has represented Trump senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, both of whom are now reported to be under scrutiny in the collusion investigation. Of course, lost in all these stories is the bizarre fact that Kushner is a senior White House adviser in the first place, tasked with entire portfolios of foreign policy assignments, even though his entire qualification for any White House job is that he married Trump’s daughter.
Mueller was not himself directly involved in his former law firm’s representation of Kushner or Manafort. So, why would the White House by looking into this obscure rule?
If the department did not grant a waiver, Mueller would be barred from investigating Kushner or Manafort, and this could greatly diminish the scope of the probe, experts said.
This is all very normal.