Russia Probes Could Add to Tensions Between Congress, Mueller

Tensions between the congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are expected to become more pronounced as the various bodies all head into a more intense phase of their investigations into Russian election meddling and any collusion with associates of President Donald Trump, CNN reported on Tuesday.

There are three committees on Capitol Hill competing for information and witnesses in the probes, with very little communication among them, and this problem is expected to worsen as the investigations are set to intensify soon with additional hearings and the further gathering of crucial documents.

Sources say that the tension already has been apparent because Mueller's team has mostly kept top congressmen out of the loop about the developments in its probe.

For its part, Congress, jealously guarding its oversight role, has mostly ignored Mueller's requests to have the testimony of some key witnesses in public session so that he won't be blocked from accessing information given to the committees privately.

Mueller also has some documents that congressmen are actively seeking, such as a draft memo that reportedly included Trump's initial justification in his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, The Wall Street Journal reported.

This failure to share information on various aspects of the probe has occurred even though Mueller privately met with leaders of the main three congressional committees investigating the Russian election meddling, in an effort to avoid conflicts with each other, according to CNN.

Sources are predicting new points of friction, because aides to each of the panels spent the August recess pouring over more than 20,0000 pages of documents from the Trump campaign about communications involving Russia, which probably will result in new witnesses and leads.

One area of specific interest centers around Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Russian-American businessman Felix Sater due to the revelation that they discussed efforts to move forward on a Trump Tower project in Moscow and sought help from the highest levels of the Kremlin, apparently contradicting the president's repeated claims of not having any business in Russia.

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