Heads of the Senate Intelligence committee and special counsel Robert Mueller gathered for the first time Wednesday on Capitol Hill to discuss their respective investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Mueller met in a secure room in the Capitol building with Senate intelligence chairman Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, and Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
The two senators have overseen a series of explosive public hearings into the Russia issue and have publicly asked to meet meet with Mr. Mueller several times since his appointment last month in the wake of President Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey.
“We had a constructive meeting with the special counsel today and we look forward to future engagements,” Mr. Burr and Mr. Warner said in a joint statement Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Mr. Burr refused to reveal further details to CNN other than to explain they met to open up lines of communication. The committee heads in the past have mentioned the need to “deconflict” their probe with Mr. Mueller’s work.
What information the two investigations share has been the subject of speculation on Capitol Hill.
Tuesday the FBI took possession of notes and memos that Mr. Comey wrote about his private meetings with Mr. Trump and then passed to a law professor in New York to leak to the media. In testimony last week, Mr. Comey admitted he’d already handed the actual memos to Mr. Mueller.
The Senate Intelligence committee, the Senate Judiciary committee, the House Intelligence committee and the House Oversight committee have all requested the memos.
In recent days, news has also surfaced of the legal team Mr. Mueller has assembled. It includes Justice Department deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben, Department’s Criminal Division of the fraud section, Andrew Weissmann and private lawyer James Quarles.
Former DOJ officials have said the appointment of Mr. Dreeben, called by some one of America’s top criminal appellate lawyers, demonstrates Mr. Mueller’s seriousness and understanding of the probe’s complexity.
Mr. Weissmann was involved in the Enron case which resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of Kenneth Lay while Mr. Quarles served as a special Watergate prosecutor in the 1970s.
Others on Mr. Mueller’s staff — which is working out of a Justice Department building in downtown Washington — include Deputy Attorney General Jeannie Rhee and Aaron Zebley, Mr. Mueller’s chief of staff when he was FBI director.
News of the appointments caused former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to take note of past campaign contributions that Mr. Dreeben, Ms. Rhee, Mr. Weissmann and Mr. Quarles had reportedly given to Democratic presidential nominees.
“Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair,” Mr. Gingrich recently tweeted. “Look who he is hiring.”
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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