Report: Mueller's team interviewed top Trump campaign aide Sam Clovis


Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team interviewed Sam Clovis, national co-chairman of President Trump's 2016 campaign and chief policy adviser, a person familiar with the situation told NBC News on Tuesday. He also testified before the investigating grand jury.
Clovis was the supervisor of George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the campaign who is cooperating with Mueller and pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to making false statements about his interactions with Russians. Court documents unsealed on Monday describe emails between an unnamed "campaign supervisor" and Papadopoulos, with the supervisor saying "great work" after they spoke about Russians trying to arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian officials. Clovis' attorney confirmed to NBC News that Clovis is the supervisor in the emails.
Notably, Clovis, a former Pentagon official and unsuccessful Senate candidate from Iowa, is President Trump's choice to be chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture, despite the fact that he is not and never has been a scientist.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban
speed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members
-
Hollywood confounded by Trump's film tariff idea
speed read President Trump proposed a '100% tariff' on movies 'produced in foreign lands'
-
Trump offers migrants $1,000 to 'self-deport'
speed read The Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants can leave the US in a more 'dignified way'
-
Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitution
speed read When asked about due process for migrants in a TV interview, President Trump said he didn't know whether he had to uphold the Fifth Amendment
-
Trump judge bars deportations under 1798 law
speed read A Trump appointee has ruled that the president's use of a wartime act for deportations is illegal
-
Trump ousts Waltz as NSA, taps him for UN role
speed read President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser and nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations