A former U.S. attorney who was appointed during the Obama administration said the “tea leaves” show special counsel Robert Mueller’s report could be delayed by a possible investigation into Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner.
Reports came out last week that said Attorney General William Barr was preparing to announce as early as next week that Mueller had concluded his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Justice Department officials then pushed back, telling multiple news outlets that Mueller’s report would not be delivered so soon.
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade speculated Saturday that redactions in Mueller’s court filings could mean that prosecutors are looking into whether President Trump’s son and son-in-law lied to Congress.
“One area that seems likely to be at least under scrutiny by Robert Mueller is whether other people have lied to Congress,” she told MSNBC, pointing to redactions in former longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s sentencing memo. McQuade stepped down as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in March 2017 at Trump’s request.
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow.
“I would think that if others lied about that matter [or] other matters, then we might see charges against them. That would include Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner,” she said.
Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 that he knew “very little” about the potential Moscow project.
Trump Jr. and Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, were also both involved in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer predicated on the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 general election rival.
[Read more: Trump: If Mueller report ‘honest,’ it will call Russian collusion a ‘hoax’]
