Trump upset about email disclosure but not firing Mueller

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is not considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, but he’s plenty upset about the way the Russia probe investigator obtained and is using thousands of emails sent and received by senior Trump transition officials.

The president says of the emails, “I can’t imagine there’s anything on ‘em, frankly. Because, as we said, there’s no collusion” with Russia during last year’s campaign. But he said the way Mueller got them was “not looking good; it’s quite sad.”

Trump was asked about the emails Sunday after the disclosure that Mueller’s team had obtained them from the General Services Administration, a federal agency that stored the material, rather than requesting them from Trump’s presidential transition organization.

The GSA improperly provided the records, asserted Kory Langhofer, general counsel of Trump’s still-existing transition group, Trump for America. Mueller’s team has been “actively using” the emails in its investigation, Langhofer said.

Trump himself has been harshly critical of Mueller’s probe of Russian activities during the 2016 campaign. But when asked if he was planning to fire the former FBI director, Trump said, “I’m not.”

The emails in question were provided to Mueller’s team by the GSA in September in response to requests from the FBI, but the transition team didn’t learn about it until last week, Langhofer said in a letter sent to the Republican heads of two congressional committees, the House Oversight and Senate Homeland Security panels. A copy of the letter was obtained by the AP.

Langhofer said the transition organization considers the documents private and privileged — and not government property.

The tens of thousands of emails pertain to 13 senior Trump transition officials. Some of the emails include national security discussions about possible administration international aims as well as candid assessments of candidates for top government posts, according to people familiar with the transition. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the records’ sensitivity.