Reports indicate Special Counsel investigating “pattern” of obstruction of justice by Trump

Developments on Day 369 of the Trump Administration:

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Officials Confirms Sessions Quizzed by Mueller’s Team

Attorney General Jeff Sessions (pictured) has been questioned for several hours by the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Trump-Russia investigation.

The interview took place last Wednesday. A “source familiar with the discussion” said Sessions was not under subpoena.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores confirmed the meeting.

Sessions met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on several occasions in 2016. However, when questioned during his confirmation hearings in January, he said he had never had discussions with Russian officials, but later had to alter the statement. He recused himself from oversight of the Justice Department’s investigation in March.

Sessions is the 15th member of the Trump Administration known to have been questioned in the inquiry.

Trump: “I Am Not Concerned” About Sessions Questioning:

The revelation came amid reports that Sessions tried to press FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire his deputy Andrew McCabe, but backed down after Wray threatened to resign.

Told of Wray’s response, White House counsel Don McGahn instructed Sessions that McCabe was not worth the loss of Wray.

Some GOP legislators and Trump have been pressing for McCabe’s departure, claiming that he is compromised because former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an ally of Hillary Clinton, donated to a failed campaign for state office by the Deputy Director’s wife Jill McCabe.

The FBI ruled that McCabe, who reportedly is retiring in March, did not have any role in the probe into Clinton’s use of a private server for e-mails.

Trump Next?

News of Sessions’ questioning fuelled new reports that Mueller will soon be seeking the testimony of Donald Trump.

Earlier this month sources said the Special Counsel, who has also summoned former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, has called for Trump’s oral deposition on matters such as last May’s firing of FBI Director James Comey in an effort to curb the Russia inquiry.

Mueller is reportedly looking at a possible “pattern” of behavior by Trump to obstruct justice. His team has spoken to Comey, and reports says the Special Council is also interested in Trump’s efforts to remove Sessions or to pressure him into quitting, following the Attorney General’s recusal from the investigation last March.

Trump could also be questioned over claims that he dictated a false statement by his son Donald Jr. about a meeting with three Kremlin-linked envoys in Trump Tower in June 2016.

Mueller’s team has also spoken with Comey. Reports on Tuesday said Rick Gates, the top aide to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, is now cooperating with investigators.

Both Manafort and Gates were indicted last October on financial, tax, and lobbying charges related to the Russia inquiry.

A further line of Mueller’s investigation may be the Trump campaign against Deputy FBI Director McCabe. Soon after Trump fired Comey, he asked McCabe for whom he voted for in the 2016 Presidential election in an introductory Oval Office meeting, according to “several current and former US officials”.

McCabe said he did not vote, but Trump continued to express frustration over the donation to the campaign of Jill McCabe.

The Deputy Director found the exchange “disturbing”, an official said.

Schumer Withdraws Wall-for-Dreamers Deal

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has withdrawn an offer of funding of Donald Trump’s Wall on the Mexican border in return for right to remain in the US for about 800,000 young undocumented “Dreamer” immigrants.

The offer was made last Friday in Schumer’s meeting with Trump, hours before the expiry of supplemental Government funding and a shutdown. Trump expressed support but was overruled by his White House staff and hardline Republicans in Congress, leading to the three-day closure of the Government before a three-week funding extension was approved on Monday night.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it is his “intention” to consider immigration legislation before the next deadline of February 8, the GOP hardliners have made clear that there will be no deal without full funding of the Wall, an end to immigrants bringing relatives to the US, an end to the diversity visa lottery, and extensive additions to border security measures.

Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, “The wall offer’s off the table.”

Meanwhile, Trump — sidelined over the weekend after his meeting with Schumer — tried to return to the spotlight with a tweet insulting Schumer and indicating no movement towards a deal on the Dreamers, who are threatened with deportation after the Administration’s termination on March 5 of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

And the White House tried to wish away the Trump-Schumer discussion on Friday. “Senator Schumer is trying to rescind an offer that he never made in the first place, and misled the public about,” said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sanders also rejected the bipartisan initiative, led by the GOP’s Lindsey Graham and Democrat Dick Durbin, for a resolution with a path to citizenship for the Dreamers, protected status for their parents, and more than $2.5 billion for border security.

Hardline Republicans pushed Trump to reject the proposal on January 11, in a meeting in which Trump referred to people from “shithole countries” trying to come to the US.

“[The initiative] is totally unacceptable to the President and should be declared dead on arrival,” Sanders told reporters.