Trump Allies Allege Mueller Obtained Trump Transition Emails Unlawfully : NPR
Trump Allies Allege Mueller  Obtained Trump Transition Emails Unlawfully
Opponents of special counsel Robert Mueller ramped up their attacks over the weekend with a new claim that he improperly collected  thousands of emails from President Trump's transition team  and is using  them  as an illegitimate basis for much of his investigation.
Mueller's office said  his team  has obtained all the evidence it's using in its investigation properly. And Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein  who appointed him  told Congress last week that he monitors Mueller's operation closely and has seen nothing improper.
This weekend's dispute is the latest chapter in an ongoing campaign by  Trump 's Republican allies against Mueller and  his team .
Upon his return to the White House from an overnight trip to Camp David   the president  weighed in on the controversy surrounding  his  transition team's emails  telling reporters  "It's not looking good."
 Trump  added:
The anti-Mueller camp raised the stakes on Saturday by charging that Mueller had improperly obtained tens of thousands of  emails from as many as a dozen accounts associated with the Trump transition   and investigators had been using information they contained in their investigation.
 The emails  were stored with General Services Administration  a government agency that does a range of things like providing office space for federal employees. It also hosted the incoming administration's email system  which ended in "@ptt.gov" â or presidential transition team.
The special counsel reportedly got the email trove from the GSA  not from  Trump  For America  a still-functioning arm of  Trump 's transition team.
The special counsel's office pushed back on the characterizations that  the emails  were obtained unlawfully. In a statement Sunday  spokesperson Peter Carr said:
But a lawyer for the  Trump  transition on Saturday sent a letter to two congressional committees arguing that the materials were acquired in a way that was "unlawful."
 Also on Saturday  Kory Langhofer  a general counsel for Trump  For America  sent a letter to chairs of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In the letter  obtained by Politico   Langhofer  calls the emails "private  privileged materials " not government property  and informs the committees of what  he  described as "unlawful conduct that undermines the Presidential Transition Act of 1963."
 Langhofer  went on to say:
 Langhofer  also asserts in the letter sent to the chairs of the congressional committees that "TFA owned and controlled the PTT emails and data" adding that "GSA had no right to access or control the records but was simply serving as TFA's records custodian."
Complicating matters is that  Langhofer  said in the memo that there was an understanding that TFA was the custodian of the emails.  He  said the agreement was laid out in June before a lawyer at GSA  Richard Beckler  a  Trump  appointee  who has since died.
Trump Allies Allege Mueller  Obtained Trump Transition Emails Unlawfully
Opponents of special counsel Robert Mueller ramped up their attacks over the weekend with a new claim that he improperly collected  thousands of emails from  [TGT] 's transition team  and is using  them  as an illegitimate basis for much of his investigation.
Mueller's office said  his team  has obtained all the evidence it's using in its investigation properly. And Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein  who appointed him  told Congress last week that he monitors Mueller's operation closely and has seen nothing improper.
This weekend's dispute is the latest chapter in an ongoing campaign by   [TGT]  's Republican allies against Mueller and  his team .
Upon his return to the White House from an overnight trip to Camp David   the president  weighed in on the controversy surrounding  his  transition team's emails  telling reporters  "It's not looking good. [TGT] 
added:
The anti-Mueller camp raised the stakes on Saturday by charging that Mueller had improperly obtained tens of thousands of  [TGT] and investigators had been using information they contained in their investigation.
  [TGT] were stored with General Services Administration  a government agency that does a range of things like providing office space for federal employees.  [TGT]  also hosted the incoming administration's email system  which ended in "@ptt.gov" â or presidential transition team.
The special counsel reportedly got the email trove from the GSA  not from   [TGT]   For America  a still-functioning arm of  Trump 's transition team.
The special counsel's office pushed back on the characterizations that   [TGT] were obtained unlawfully. In a statement Sunday  spokesperson Peter Carr said:
But a lawyer for the   [TGT] transition on Saturday sent a letter to two congressional committees arguing that the materials were acquired in a way that was "unlawful."
 Also on Saturday  Kory Langhofer  a general counsel for  [TGT] For America  sent a letter to chairs of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In the letter  obtained by Politico   Langhofer  calls the emails "private  privileged materials " not government property  and informs the committees of what  he  described as "unlawful conduct that undermines the Presidential Transition Act of 1963."
 Langhofer  went on to say:
 Langhofer  also asserts in the letter sent to the chairs of the congressional committees that "TFA owned and controlled the PTT emails and data" adding that "GSA had no right to access or control the records but was simply serving as TFA's records custodian."
Complicating matters is that  Langhofer  said in the memo that there was an understanding that TFA was the custodian of the emails.  He  said the agreement was laid out in June before a lawyer at GSA  Richard Beckler  a  Trump  appointee  who has since died.