JUDY WOODRUFF: There were multiple developments today connected to the investigation into
possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
The Washington Post reports that special counsel Robert Mueller plans to question President
Trump about why he fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director
James Comey, this hours after the Department of Justice confirmed that Attorney General
Jeff Sessions faced questions just last week.
Here is Jeffrey Brown to help piece together what we know.
JEFFREY BROWN: The attorney general is the first Trump Cabinet member to sit down with
Robert Mueller's team that we know of.
We also learned today that former FBI Director James Comey was questioned by the special
counsel's office last year.
The New York Times reported that this afternoon.
And the paper's Washington investigations editor, Mark Mazzetti, joins me now.
So, Mark, we have Attorney General Sessions last week.
We have James Comey last year.
What does this tell us, if anything, about the state of the probe?
MARK MAZZETTI, The New York Times: Well, it certainly says that Mueller's team is looking
pretty closely at this question of obstruction of justice.
Did the president -- did President Trump since he took office try to impede the ongoing FBI
investigation into Russia and later the investigation taken over by Mueller?
Did he try to impede it with regards to Michael Flynn?
Did he try to impede it when he fired James Comey?
And so Sessions and, of course, Comey himself would be critical witnesses to try to answer
these questions.
But it's not just the obstruction issue.
Recall that Sessions was also a key campaign adviser for Donald Trump, and so the question
of, was there any collusion, was there -- what was the extent of contact with the Russians,
Sessions would also be able to speak to that question.
JEFFREY BROWN: Now, he was a key campaign adviser on foreign affairs specifically.
MARK MAZZETTI: That's right.
And he sort of ran the foreign affairs team, a team that has several members that have
already been examined by Mueller and FBI because of their contacts with the Russians, George
Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Flynn himself.
Sessions was running that group.
And there were key meetings in the spring and summer of 2016 that Mueller would want
to ask Sessions about.
JEFFREY BROWN: There is also, as Judy said earlier, new reports that Mr. Mueller wants
to talk to President Trump.
Do we know anything more about timing?
MARK MAZZETTI: You know, reports have come out in the last few weeks that Mueller in
the coming weeks and months will want to talk to Trump.
Obviously, we knew he would.
The new report today in The Post was that it would be or could come in a matter of a
few weeks.
That certainly is very interesting.
It would certainly indicate that Mueller is beginning to, you know, perhaps wrap up the
investigation, because Trump would in normal circumstances be the last witness.
You would want to interview the president last, because he would be -- you know, you
might only get one shot at him.
But this is not normal times, so I don't want the make any prediction, but certainly he
would want to ask President Trump about the obstruction question, about the Flynn and
Comey issue, as we just discussed.
He'd want to ask about any possible collusion.
There would be any number of things to talk to the president about, and the president
and his legal team would obviously want to have their ducks in a row before that happens.
JEFFREY BROWN: Another development here is the reports that the attorney general has
been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire his deputy, Andrew McCabe, and further
that the FBI director has threatened to resign himself if the pressure doesn't stop.
What do we know or not know about all this?
MARK MAZZETTI: It's unclear whether Wray actually did threaten to resign, but there is no question
there has been this tension, in part because Wray was put in after Comey fired, and yet
he inherited a lot of Comey's team.
The White House and the attorney general, Sessions, have sort of made no secret about
the fact that they thought Comey and his team were partisan and to some degree corrupt.
So the question of how much Wray should clean house at FBI has been a point of tension.
And certainly Wray would want to at some point put his own team in place.
I think the question of the pace at which he did that and how much pressure from above
to fire Comey aides, that's really the issue.
And all of the backdrop of this, of course, is overriding tension between President Trump
and the FBI.
President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he thinks the rank and file of FBI
and the senior leadership has been very partisan and against him.
JEFFREY BROWN: No secret.
That's continued.
Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times, thanks very much.
MARK MAZZETTI: Thank you.