As Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced his first indictments in his Russia election meddling investigation, the Trump administration fired back with assurances that there is “No Collusion!” — as the president tweeted. Trump also tried to distance himself from one of Mueller’s targets, calling George Papadopoulos “a low-level volunteer” on the Trump team. Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to federal regulators about his Russia contacts while working for the Trump campaign. Mueller’s team, of course, indicted Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort’s associate Rick Gates, on multiple charges including money laundering.
Concerns exist that Trump will try to politicize Mueller’s efforts and impugn the Special Counsel’s independence — because Trump has cried “witch hunt” about Russia collusion accusation in the past. One aspect of this potential Trump strategy is to target Mueller’s team as biased, even if Special Counsel Mueller himself remains difficult to undermine. (Cost will also be employed as a populist drumbeat to undermine Special Counsel efforts that get close to Trump — frequent mentions of how much in “taxpayer dollars” Mueller’s investigating team costs the government.) Mueller’s team, so far little known to the general public, will likely get more attention as the investigation ramps up. Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department in May. Here are some of Mueller’s team members, 13 of whom are attorneys that were already hired by June 16, 2017. The full team is thought to be about 40 people. Kenneth Starr, who investigated Bill Clinton, told ABC that Mueller had hired a “great, great team of complete professionals.”
- Peter Carr — DOJ veteran and spokesperson
- Michael Dreeben – Deputy Solicitor General at Justice, Duke Law
- James Quarles — Watergate veteran, former assistant special prosecutor
- Andrew Weissmann — “witness flipper” who led the Enron investigation
- Aaron Zebley — no political donations on record for Zebley
- Rush Atkinson — Fraud specialist, gave $200 to Clinton 2016
- Greg Andres — foreign bribery expert
- Andrew Goldstein — corruption specialist, Southern District of New York
- Jeannie Rhee — experience at Justice and Mueller colleague at WilmerHale
- Lisa C. Page — organized crime prosecutor, target of right wing “witch hunt” propaganda
- Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar — former Miss Idaho, Harvard Law grad and SCOTUS clerk adds fluent Russian to the relevant skill set
- Kyle Freeny — Money laundering expert
- Zainab Ahmad — high profile terrorism prosecutor background
- Aaron Zelinsky — Excellence in Prosecution of Organized Crime Award from the Justice Department
- Adam Jed — DOJ, Harvard, Clerked for Stevens
- Brandon Van Grack — National Security expert
