After special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, President Trump told his advisers Mueller had conflicts of interest that should prohibit him from serving in the role.
Mueller addressed one of those alleged conflicts in a footnote in a redacted version of his report released Thursday by the Justice Department.
Trump argued to advisers, including chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House strategist Steve Bannon, and White House counsel Don McGahn that Mueller interviewing for the role of FBI director before he was appointed special counsel, Mueller’s work for a law firm that represented people connected to the president, and a dispute over membership fees at Trump’s Virginia golf club were all conflicts of interest, the report said.
In the footnote, Mueller explained that he had written a letter in October 2011 to Trump National Golf Club to end his family’s membership at the club.
“We live in the District and find that we are unable to make full use of the Club,” the letter said.
Mueller also asked “whether we would be entitled to a refund of a portion of our initial membership fee,” which his family paid in 1994.
An employee of the club responded to the letter two weeks later, according to Mueller, telling the family their membership would end effective Oct. 31, 2011, and they would be “placed on a waitlist to be refunded on a first resigned / first refunded basis.”
Mueller said his family did not have any further contact with the club.
The special counsel’s report said Trump’s advisers told the president the claimed conflicts of interest were not “true conflicts.”
“Bannon recalled telling the President that the purported conflicts were ‘ridiculous’ and that none of them was real or could come close to justifying precluding Mueller from serving as Special Counsel.”
