Translated material
Letter of the prosecutor. 40 questions that Trump can clarify
The questions about whether the US President Donald Trump prevented justice and whether people came out of his surroundings in a conspiracy with Russian representatives, most likely are one of the main ones during the investigation of Russian intervention in the American electoral process, which has been conducted by special prosecutor Robert Muller for about a year. This conclusion allows you to make a list of questions that the prosecutor Müller would like to ask President Trump. These issues, who kept secret, were at the disposal of New York Times.
On Monday evening, a list of 49 questions was published by the New York Times. These issues, according to the newspaper, were allegedly transferred to the lawyers of President Trump by representatives of the special prosecutor Müller. Their authenticity was involuntarily confirmed by President Trump, who in the early morning on Tuesday turned to Twitter to express his indignation about the "leak". He called the "leak" of questions regarding the hunting for witches related to Russia. "
As a result of this large -scale investigation, 19 people became the object of criminal charges, 13 of them are Russians
Of particular weight this list is that this is the first documentary certificate that allows, with a certain degree of reliability, to judge the progress of the investigation, which has been leading the team of Robert Muller for about a year. Müller was given the authority to investigate Russian intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, including potential contacts and coordination of actions between the employees of the campaign headquarters Donald Trump and representatives of the Russian government. So far, as a result of this large-scale investigation, 19 people became the object of criminal charges, 13 of them are Russian citizens related to the Internet research agency. However, none of the accused American citizens who worked in the Trump election headquarters are charged with cooperation with Russia. Investigators caught them in the dacha of false testimony, and four of them have already pleaded guilty. Such a long absence of accusations on the main issue posed before the investigation, about the contacts of people from the environment of candidate Trump with Russian representatives, made many experts suggest that Müller and his investigators would most likely be limited to the accusations of obstruction of justice. But questions, for President Trump, prepared by Robert Muller, prove that the special prosecutor continues to be extremely interested in everything that Donald Trump and Russia can connect.
For example, several questions in this list relate to whether Donald Trump was aware of the contacts of his closest assistants with Russian representatives, for example, the meeting of his son Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the head of the electoral headquarters of Manafort with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who allegedly had a Congonian Congonon with materials. Robert Müller asks the connection of Donald Trump with Araz and Emin Agalarovs, who were Trump's partners in the organization of the Miss Universe contest in Moscow in 2013. The president is addressed to the question of whether he knew something about Paul Manafort to receive potential help from Russia for his election campaign? Nothing before such attempts by Paul Manafort was known.
Most of the questions on the list concerns the dismissal details of the director of the FBI James Komi
The prosecutor wants to hear personally from the president whether he spoke to someone during the election campaign about the organization of a meeting with Vladimir Putin and whether Jared Kushner tried to organize an informal communication channel with the Kremlin shortly before the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. Most of the questions on the list concerning the details of the dismissal of the director of the FBI James Komi. Was this dismissal attitude to the Russian investigation? The special prosecutor is interested in the relationship of the President with the Prosecutor General Jeff Sehns and whether the president had the intention to dismiss himself and stop the investigation.
However, on Tuesday, a more urgent issue, according to American observers, was the question of whether the special prosecutor will be able to ask them to the current president of the country. The situation is very rare. The prosecutor, appointed by the Prosecutor General, subordinate to the president, is investigated by the potential illegal actions of the president and wants to conduct an interview with him. The President can reject this request, the special prosecutor has the right to challenge the President’s decision in court, and lawyers do not exclude that in the end the lawsuit - the president is obliged to answer questions from the special prosecutor or is not obliged - it will reach the Supreme Court. President Trump more than once publicly rejected the accusations of conspiracy with the Kremlin and expressed his readiness to answer the questions of the special prosecutor to dispel the speculations of those who conducted what he had more than once called the witch hunt. However, Trump's lawyers believe that the answers to such questions are fraught with major problems for their client, even if he has nothing to hide. Investigators can seize the contradictions in his testimony and testimony of his former employees and impose for the president, for example, perjury.
Müller is trying to test Trump, asking questions, the answers to which, most likely, already knows
“Lawyers realize that all this is fraught with big problems, not the last of which is that the president is known for his tendency to hyperboles,” says Matt Apuszo, an interview with MSNBC television company. - Another danger is that Donald Trump does not know what other witnesses surveyed by the special prosecutor said. Robert Müller, apparently, is trying to test Trump, asking questions, the answers to which Muller most likely already knows. That is why lawyers tell the president that this is not a very good idea.
This list provoked directly opposite emotions of supporters and opponents of President Trump. The New York Times welcomes the work of a special prosecutor as evidence of the viability of the American system based on the rule of law. "The questions of Robert Muller are given to believe that despite the chaos that reigned in this administration, professionals, public servants working in the law enforcement agencies, continue to fulfill their duties, investigating crimes and administering justice," writes the newspaper’s editorial board.