A Member of Trump’s Legal Team Says He is Not Under Investigation

While it appeared that President Trump recently confirmed that he is under investigation via Twitter, a member of his outside legal team claims that the President is actually not under investigation.

Attorney Jay Sekulow appeared on a variety of morning news programs this past Sunday to stress that the president is in fact not under investigation. He stated that “the president has not been and is not under investigation.” Sekulow says that the Presidents tweet this past Friday was specifically in regards to a story in The Washington Post about the probe into Russia’s election interference.

The attorney claimed that Trump had not been notified of the investigation. Sekulow addressed the testimony of former FBI director, James Comey, as evidence. He noted that in the testimony, Comey had told the President that he was not under investigation in the months leading up to his firing this past May.

Attorneys are sometimes notified by prosecutors when an individual is under investigation and may be at risk of being charged. However, there is no rule that requires a potential defendant to be advised of an investigation or their role in it.

Sekulow was asked whether it was possible that an investigation of the President has since developed without his knowledge of it. He responded by saying that, “I can’t read people’s minds, but I can tell you this, we have not been notified that there’s an investigation to the president of the United States. So that — nothing has changed in that regard since James Comey’s testimony.”

The Washington Post reported last week that Robert Mueller was looking into whether or not the President obstructed justice. Mueller was appointed as the special counsel to investigate the potential Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller, who has expansive ability to probe any matters that develop from the original investigation.

In a tweet this past Friday, Trump referred to this apparent investigation as a “witch hunt”. This has become Trump’s preferred term when addressing the Russian probe. Rosentein’s role in the federal investigation has become rather complicated; Trump’s twitter message apparently for the Deputy Attorney General. Rosenstein wrote the memo that the White House used in justifying the decision to fire Comey, however, this may actually become part of the Russian robe.

As the investigation has continued to heat up, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, may be acquiring new legal representation.  Jamie Gorelick has represented Kushner in the past on business matters as well as other issues.

After the appointment of the special counsel, Gorelick advised Kushner ““to obtain the independent advice of a lawyer with appropriate experience as to whether he should continue with us.”

Gorelick is a partner of the WilmerHale law firm, the same firm that Mueller left to lead this investigation. The Justify Department, however, has said that Mueller’s work at WilmerHale does not make him unqualified to lead the Russian investigation. According to the department, under the professional responsibility rules, Mueller can participate in matters that involve his former firm clients as long as he was not involved in their representation and does not hold confidential information about them.

Trump has declined that he has any ties to Russia and denies that he has attempted to stop the investigation into his campaign’s potential role in the Russian’s election meddling. While the president has directed some frustration onto Mueller and Rosenstein, Senator Marco Rubio said this Sunday that he does not expect that they will be the next to be fired by the President.