Two of President Trump's former campaign aides were locked in a duel with each other to win a massive lobbying contract with a pair of Turkish businessmen — including one with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin — during the lead-up to the election, Reuters reports.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey met with Turkish businessmen Ekim Alptekin and Sezgin Baran Korkmaz eight days before joining the Trump campaign to pitch the pair on a $10 million contract with him and his wife, Nancye Miller, that would have aimed to discredit a Pennsylvania-based cleric who has been a thorn in the side of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Alptekin had separately agreed to a $600,000 contract with Trump adviser (and later, briefly, national security adviser) Michael Flynn to research the cleric, Fethullah Gulen; that contract is now under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Alptekin was found to have business ties in Russia, including ones directly linked to Putin himself, Politico writes, adding that "the revelation of Russian business ties to the man who hired Flynn threatens to complicate the White House's struggle to escape the shadow of the FBI investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian agents."
In the September 2016 meeting just before joining the campaign, "Miller said she and Woolsey were in a better position than Flynn to influence decision-makers about Gulen's alleged role in the [failed 2016 Turkish] coup, according to Alptekin and two other people familiar with the discussion," Reuters writes. Among Miller and Woolsey's proposed strategies: a plan to loop in Jeff Sessions — now Trump's attorney general — to author an article about Turkey. Jeva Lange
Not long after the news alerts were sent out about Attorney General William Barr sending his summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report to Congress, another email landed in the inboxes of President Trump's supporters, this one asking for money.
With the subject line "NO COLLUSION OR OBSTRUCTION," the Trump fundraising email states that as long as donors give $5 or more "by 11:59 p.m. TONIGHT," their gift will be "QUADRUPLE MATCHED," The Guardian's Ben Jacobs reports. It starts with a false statement — that Mueller's report is a "COMPLETE EXONERATION" — and blasts Democrats, accusing them of working with "the Fake News Media for 2 years orchestrating this Nasty Witch Hunt."
Trump needs money in order to "fight back BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE," and that's why he is offering the quadruple match "for my best supporters only, the ones who stood by my side through the entire Witch Hunt." Everyone who donates through this solicitation will be placed on a list, which the email states will be delivered to Trump by his campaign team. Catherine Garcia
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team considered issuing a subpoena for President Trump to be interviewed, and discussed this with Department of Justice officials, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN on Sunday.
They ultimately decided not to pursue a subpoena "based on the perception of the evidence and merits of the issues," CNN reports. Mueller's office spent months trying to get Trump to sit down for an interview, and finally submitted written questions to Trump last fall, asking him about things that happened prior to the 2016 election. He responded in November.
Mueller submitted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election on Friday, and on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr sent a short letter to Congress giving his interpretation of the findings, saying Mueller did not find the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and he could not make a decision on whether Trump obstructed justice. Catherine Garcia
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Sunday agreed with the White House that the newly-released summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report is a victory for President Trump — at least when it comes to allegations of collusion with Russia.
Toobin offered his analysis on CNN after Attorney General William Barr said that Mueller didn't find that Trump or his associates conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Toobin said that the report is a "total vindication of the president and his staff on the issue of collusion."
When it comes to whether Trump obstructed justice, though, this is "somewhat more complicated," Toobin observed. This is because the summary notes that while the investigation "does not conclude Trump committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." It was Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that reached the conclusion that there was not sufficient evidence on obstruction, Toobin explains.
"That is still a vindication, but it's quite a different one than Mueller's total vindication of the president on the issue of collusion with Russia," Toobin said. He later added that although it may turn out that Barr and Rosenstein's conclusion on obstruction was the correct one, the fact that this came from "the president’s appointees" makes it a "very different thing from an independent conclusion." Watch Toobin's analysis below. Brendan Morrow
There has been a lot of uncertainty as to just how much of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's conduct amid Russian election interference would be made available to Congress and the public. That still remains unclear after Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress briefing them on the "principle conclusions" of Mueller's investigation.
However, Barr did say that he intends to release as much of the report as possible, CNN reports.
He also said that Mueller will be involved in redaction efforts, particularly in terms of removing secret jury testimony, as well as material that is pertinent to ongoing investigations that have branched off from Mueller's initial investigation.
Barr wrote that once that process is complete he will "move forward expeditiously in determining" what can officially be revealed. Tim O'Donnell