In addition to a squad of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mueller now has 18 attorneys on staff, a spokesperson for Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirmed to ABC News. Mueller’s team has come under fire in the past year for perceived biases against the President.
A special counsel like Mueller is allowed to hire his own staff, and Mueller has now assembled a team of 13 investigators, according to CNN. However, at this time, only five members of this team have been identified. President Donald Trump has attacked the lawyers investigating him,...
Special counsel Mueller himself has been a registered Republican in the past and was first appointed FBI Director by President George W. Bush. These 18 attorneys are confirmed members of Mueller’s team:
The probe resulted in 34 people and three companies being criminally charged, and there have been seven guilty pleas and one trial conviction. The team members' specialties range from constitutional law and obstruction of justice to money laundering and cyber crimes.
Mueller’s team does have 13 registered Democrats and no registered Republicans, and several team members made donations to Clinton’s campaign in various amounts.
Mueller’s team has the legal right to register to vote with a party or by making personal donations. Such activities are protected under the Hatch Act, originally passed in 1939.
Robenalt said he wouldn’t advise young Justice Department lawyers to voluntarily eschew all political activity today for fear of getting attacked if they one day join a politically charged investigation.
Every federal employee swears an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States" and "bear true faith and allegiance to the same." Lawyers practicing in the federal courts swear a separate oath "that as an attorney and as a counselor of this court, I will conduct myself uprightly and according to law, and that I will support the Constitution of the United States."
We’ll also note that in the jurisdictions in which the Mueller lawyers live -- primarily the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York -- the Democrats are the dominant party, meaning that many races are effectively decided in Democratic primaries rather than in the general election.
Agents "come in all political stripes, though most are not active politically," Robenalt said. "FBI agents, as most law enforcement, tend to be conservative, law-and-order types, so my guess is most would tend to be Republicans or conservative Democrats or just plain Independents."
So Trump is using some sleight-of-hand to say that there are "zero Republicans" on Mueller’s team. The team is led by a registered Republican, and there may be other registered Republicans working with Mueller whose identities the public simply doesn’t know about.
Mueller has added two prosecutors to his legal team since the probe began.
Mueller’s team has come under fire in the past year for perceived biases against the President. Conservatives have pointed to team members’ donations to Democratic causes as a major red flag, as well as a 2016 cache of text messages disparaging then-candidate Trump recovered from former team members FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Justice Department guidelines do not allow consideration of party affiliation to affect personnel decisions. Special counsel Mueller himself has been a registered Republican in the past and was first appointed FBI Director by President George W. Bush.
Scott Meisler joined the special counsel in June 2017, according to Mueller spokesman Peter Carr. Meisler joined the special counsel in June 2017. Prior to that, he had worked as an appellate attorney for the Department of Justice’s criminal division since 2009.
Peter Strzok, who had been tapped by Mueller to help lead the probe, left the team last summer, sources told ABC News in August. As chief of the FBI's counterespionage section, he helped oversee the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server when she was the U.S. secretary of state.
Justice Department guidelines do not allow consideration of party affiliation to affect personnel decisions. Special counsel Mueller himself has been a registered Republican in the past and was first appointed FBI Director by President George W. Bush. These 18 attorneys are confirmed members of Mueller’s team:
Several of the team's lawyers came from Wilmer-Hale, where Mueller was recently a partner. Some are veteran federal prosecutors who have tried terrorism cases against al Qaeda operatives or mafia bosses. Others bring white-collar criminal expertise.
The scope of the investigation, individuals familiar with the matter have told CBS News, includes Russian interference in the election, Russian hacking, any other Russian influence, and possible financial wrongdoing. Mueller's team recently obtained records from Facebook regarding $100,000 in ad buys Russians made during and immediately after the 2016 presidential election. Between June 2015 and May of this year, about 3,000 ads connected with 470 "inauthentic accounts" were posted on Facebook, according to the social media giant.
Michael Dreeben. Dreeben currently serves as the deputy solicitor general in charge of overseeing the Justice Department's criminal appellate docket. According to the American Law Institute, Dreeben, who has argued more than 100 court cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, joins the team on a "part-time basis.".
James Quarles. Quarles served as an assistant special prosecutor as part of the Watergate Special Prosecution from 1973 until 1975. More recently, he also was a partner at WilmerHale. He also served as a law clerk in a U.S. District Court of Maryland in the early 1970s, according to Bloomberg.
Last month, CBS reported Mueller is using a grand jury in the probe, which is an indication the probe is intensifying. The impaneling of a grand jury means Mueller's team has the ability to seek indictments and subpoena records, although the special counsel already had broad investigative authority when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ...
Robert Mueller Team of Investigators: Full List of Lawyers. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller. (Getty) A team of lawyers lead by former FBI Director Robert Mueller is currently leading an investigation into President Donald Trump. This began on May 17th, 2017, when Mueller was hired by the Justice Department as special counsel to look ...
A special counsel like Mueller is allowed to hire his own staff, and Mueller has now assembled a team of 13 investigators, according to CNN. However, at this time, only five members of this team have been identified. President Donald Trump has attacked the lawyers investigating him, suggesting that they are “bad and conflicted” people.
According to Wired, during the Watergate investigation, he focused on campaign finance research.
Rhee has donated over $15,000 to Democratic candidates over the years, including Hillary Clinton, according to Open Secrets.
James Quarles has donated over $30,000 to Democrats over the years, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to Open Secrets.
This began on May 17th, 2017, when Mueller was hired by the Justice Department as special counsel to look into Russian interference in the 2016 election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A special counsel like Mueller is allowed to hire his own staff, and Mueller has now assembled a team ...
Michael Dreeben is the current deputy solicitor general in charge of the Department of Justice’s criminal docket before the Supreme Court. He has worked in the Solicitor General’s office since the late 1980s, and he is considered to be an expert in criminal law, having argued over 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
More questions over Mueller probe 'bias' as 16 attorneys working for him revealed to include 13 registered Democrats and NO Republicans
A new analysis of special counsel Robert Mueller's team of crack investigators reveals that 13 of them are Democrats and none of them are registered Republican.
Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyer slams CNN and MSNBC for botching 'basic facts' about the case because 'they did not fit the story they want to tell'
A new Daily Calleranalysis that built on previous document searches by checking state databases, and found two other members of the team that have given to Democrats: Adam Jed, who donated $1,100 to two Democrats at the state and local level, and Aaron Zelinsky, who donated $200 to Democratic candidates at the state and local level.
Disgraced: Attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to Robert Mueller's investigators. He arrived at the Washington D.C. federal courthouse ahead of a hearing where he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI this week
Earlier reports had revealed the stark financial breakdown. About half the contributions to Democrats came from one member of Mueller's team, James Quarles, who donated $33,000 to Democrats going back to Michael Dukakis.
Trump has branded the Mueller probe a 'witch hunt' and some Republicans have gone after Mueller's team on his behalf. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said the team was 'infected with bias.'