President Mike Pence called on special counsel Robert Mueller to end his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, saying during an appearance on the Today Show Thursday that “In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up.”
“I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion,” Pence said.
The comments, understated as they were, marked a departure from form for Pence, who had previously held his peace even as President Trump’s rhetorical assaults on the special counsel have intensified. In recent weeks, Trump has blasted Mueller’s investigation as a “phony witch hunt” and an “attack on our country.” Meanwhile, Mueller’s focus has broadened considerably from the original subject of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian entities: The special counsel has brought charges against Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort for crimes related to prior political consulting work in Ukraine, against former national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, and against 13 Russians and three Russian entities for conspiring to destabilize American democratic institutions. (Mueller’s Justice Department charter authorizes him to investigate the Russia matter, but also “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation,” if given approval from acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.)
Pence has remained largely unscathed by the various scandals related to the Mueller investigation that have howled around the White House over the past year, with one exception: Late last year, he was forced to walk back denials that anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with Russians after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to law enforcement about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
It is not yet clear how much time Mueller plans to take to accomplish the purposes of his investigation, although he has accelerated the pace in recent months, handing down indictments at a rapid clip this year. It was reported just this week that the special counsel had looked intocorporate payments made to a shell company owned by Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in the months following the 2016 election.
If Mueller has not wrapped up his year-old investigation by July 2, he is required to submit his estimated budget for the next fiscal year to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. At that point, Rosenstein will decide whether to bring the probe to a close or to authorize it for another year.
