Mueller Issuing Subpoenas Through Washington Grand Jury

By MATT APUZZO
© 2017 New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential election, has issued subpoenas from a Washington-based grand jury in recent weeks, according to several lawyers involved in the case.

At least some of the subpoenas were for documents related to the business dealings of Michael Flynn, the retired general who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn is under investigation for foreign lobbying work, as well as for conversations he had during the transition with Sergey I. Kislyak, who at the time was Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

Mueller’s team is broadly investigating whether any Trump associates colluded with the Russian government in its attempts to disrupt the election. It is unclear whether the subpoenas issued in recent weeks relate to other members of Trump’s campaign who have been a focus of the Mueller investigation, including Paul J. Manafort, the former campaign chairman.

A grand jury based in Alexandria, Virginia, began issuing subpoenas in the Flynn case months ago. Mueller took over the investigation in May and assembled a team of prosecutors in an office in downtown Washington. Mueller has not impaneled a special grand jury, the lawyers involved in the case said, and has decided instead to use one of several grand juries that regularly sit in Washington.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Mueller’s use of the grand jury in Washington.

Brandon Van Grack, a former Alexandria prosecutor now working for Mueller, signed the subpoenas and has been leading the investigation into Flynn. Those who described the subpoenas did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Mueller is also investigating a June 9, 2016, meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, based on the expectation of getting damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer. Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, also attended the Trump Tower meeting.

The younger Trump has said that the meeting did not produce any valuable information and that he had no further contact with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.