Campaign finance law, which generally prohibits accepting or soliciting foreign assistance in connection with a u. s. Gates’s testimony at manafort’s trial in july–august was instrumental in securing the latter’s conviction on eight criminal counts. How did it begin? Some constitutional scholars warned that trump ’s refusal to recognize any legitimate purpose to congress’s investigations of his administration threatened to undermine the constitutionally established separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Comey also revealed that, after being fired, he indirectly leaked the memo that recounted his dinner conversation with trump in the hope of triggering the appointment of a special counsel to continue the russia investigation. Although past administrations, including the richard nixon administration, had also regularly defied congressional oversight, particularly with claims of executive privilege, none had so broadly rejected, on explicitly partisan grounds, any congressional oversight whatsoever. Early in july 2017 the press reported that in june 2016 senior members of the trump campaign, including its chairperson, paul manafort, as well as jared kushner and trump ’s son donald, jr. , had met secretly in trump tower with a lawyer associated with the russian government. A comparative analysis of mueller and durhams investigations costs and results in the trump - russia saga. The memo immediately raised concerns, even among some republicans, that trump ’s actions might have constituted obstruction of justice. (flynn’s sentencing was postponed by the district court on several occasions, initially to permit flynn to cooperate with government investigators, which he did until mid-2019. ) in february 2018 additional charges were filed against manafort and gates in a superseding indictment, leading gates to reach a plea agreement; District attorney for the southern district of new york (sdny) continued its separate inquiry into possible tax fraud and violations of campaign-finance law by trump in connection with the alleged hush-money payments to stephanie clifford and karen mcdougal (that investigation, however, was abruptly closed without explanation in july 2019). But what is it exactly? The robert mueller special counsel investigation was a criminal investigation into 45th u. s. At the same time, the office of the u. s. · for nearly two years the trump - russia affair has dominated front pages and mired the presidents administration in conflict and controversy. President donald trump regarding russian interference in the 2016 united states elections and was conducted by special prosecutor robert mueller from may 2017 to march 2019. Facing a separate trial on other felony charges in september, manafort reached his own plea agreement with the mueller investigation that month. In august 2018 trump admitted via twitter that the purpose of the meeting was “to get information on an opponent” but insisted that the encounter was perfectly legal, that no information was forthcoming, and that he did not know about the meeting in advance. Later that month the press obtained a copy of a memo written by comey that summarized a conversation between comey and trump at a dinner at the white house in january. · mueller’s investigation led to charges against 34 people and three businesses, but found that while the trump campaign welcomed russian efforts to influence the election, there was not evidence. In january 2018 president trump ’s legal team acknowledged in a memo to the mueller investigation that trump himself had dictated the initial false account of the meeting (claiming that it had concerned adoptions), contradicting earlier statements by his attorneys and by white house press secretaries. See full list on britannica. com Comey’s testimony in june before the senate intelligence committee, which, like the house intelligence committee, was conducting its own investigation, was broadcast live on television, radio, and the internet. After comey testified again in may about russian interference in the election, trump abruptly fired him, ostensibly on the recommendation of the justice department, which in memos solicited by trump criticized comey for his public disclosures regarding clinton’s e-mails. Comey accused trump and other administration officials of lying about comey’s effectiveness as director of the fbi, and he attributed his being fired to trump ’s alleged desire to shut down the russia investigation. By the summer of 2019 approximately 30 criminal or civil investigations of trump and his family or associates were underway. Washington (ap) — an investigation into the origins of the fbi’s probe into ties between russia and donald trump ’s 2016 presidential campaign has finally been concluded, with prosecutor john durham submitting a much-awaited report that found major flaws. Many americans watched from bars and restaurants, which opened early in some parts of the country to provide venues for viewing the much-anticipated event. The memo stated that trump had asked comey to pledge “loyalty” to him and that trump had indirectly requested that comey drop the fbi’s investigation of flynn. As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, flynn twice pleaded guilty in federal district court to lying to the fbi—once in december 2017 and again in december 2018. Trump soon acknowledged that he had intended to fire comey regardless of the justice department’s recommendation and that “this russia thing” was a factor in his decision. Democratic members of congress, meanwhile, expressed dismay that comey had chosen to report the discovery of additional clinton e-mails in october but had waited until after the election to reveal the russia investigation. In response, donald, jr. , issued a statement in which he claimed that the meeting had primarily concerned adoptions of russian children by americans and that he had not known in advance who on the russian side would be attending. Since the early months of that year, however, the trump administration had regularly refused to provide documents or witness testimony requested or subpoenaed by democratic-led house committees investigating alleged corruption, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice by trump or the trump administration.
