The federal government is conducting 4 separate Russia probes. They're not coexisting very well.

Robert Mueller.
(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

There are four concurrent federal probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and alleged collusion by President Trump or members of his campaign, and investigatory cooperation isn't going so well, thanks to poor communication and complex information distribution rules. Three congressional committees are on the case, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and CNN reports the parallel inquiries are struggling to share findings and access to key witnesses.

For example, the Mueller team approached the Senate Intelligence Committee to request the transcript of closed-door testimony from former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. The committee has yet to hand over the document, because Manafort's lawyers say they have not authorized the transfer, while Mueller's attorneys say they were previously granted access.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.