Her people said this was all just a superficial contact and she really had nothing to do with it. But Buzzfeed has emails that show they are lying. Surprise.
Rudy Giuliani has said that investigating Ivanka would be a “red line” and I’m guessing Mueller believes this too. Trump’s excessively close relationship with his daughter and his explosive temperament probably precludes anyone questioning her despite the fact that she was a top executive in the Trump Organization and now works officially as a senior White House adviser to the president. Mueller probably feels it isn’t worth it.
But I can’t help but recall Ken Starr and all the other prosecutors during the Clinton years going after Hillary Clinton with everything they had from billing records of her time years before as a lawyer and those cattle futures trades from a decade before.
Unlike the situation with Ivanka, there were no national security implications but nonetheless, they hounded her. Recall this:
Hillary Clinton Is Subpoenaed To Testify Before a Grand Jury
By Alison Mitchell|Jan. 22nd, 1996
Hillary Rodham Clinton has been subpoenaed to appear before a Federal grand jury that is investigating whether anyone at the White House obstructed justice in the handling of records from the First Lady’s former law firm.
Mark Fabiani, a White House lawyer, said Mrs. Clinton would appear on Friday before a Washington grand jury to answer questions from Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel investigating the Whitewater real estate deal. Mr. Fabiani said that officials had received no indication that the First Lady was a target of the investigation.
Mrs. Clinton has already answered questions from Mr. Starr under oath three times about other areas of the inquiry. But this is the first time that she will appear before a grand jury. Indeed, White House officials said they believed it was the first time that any First Lady had been called before a grand jury.
The subpoena was delivered on Friday after a White House aide testified that the legal records, which had been sought by prosecutors for two years, turned up in a White House room to which only the aide, the Clintons, their house guests and servants had access. In addition to Mrs. Clinton, the counsel also subpoenaed members of the White House staff and lawyers representing the Clintons.
It came just as President Clinton was in the midst of planning Tuesday’s State of the Union Message, in which he plans to set out the broad themes of his re-election campaign and vision for a second term. One aide said the White House had not planned to disclose the subpoena before Mr. Clinton’s appearance but did so because they believed it had already disclosed to the press.
Publicly the White House sought to put the best appearance on the grand jury summons. “As the First Lady has always said, she is as eager as anyone to resolve questions regarding the billing records and she will continue to provide whatever help she can finally to resolve these issues,” Mr. Fabiani said.
But the grand jury appearance promises to keep Mrs. Clinton in an uncomfortable spotlight just weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary begin setting the shape of the Presidential political field and focusing the nation’s attention on the campaign.
One White House official conceded that the eve of a particularly sensitive State of the Union Message was “not the ideal timing” for announcing Mrs. Clinton’s grand jury appearance. The official added that Mrs. Clinton would have been willing to answer questions without receiving a subpoena from the special counsel.
Earlier in the day, Mrs. Clinton had offered to give written answers to questions from the Senate Whitewater committee, which is also investigating the appearance of the copies of the documents two years after the documents were first sought by prosecutors.
The White House press secretary, Michael D. McCurry, said he did not believe that the matter would ultimately hurt the President. Most Americans, he said, “want to know if there’s any ‘there’ there and when they’re told there is not and told that she will answer the questions and cooperate, they want to get onto subjects more germane to their lives.”
The summons for Mrs. Clinton capped several extraordinary weeks when a tour intended to promote her new book on children has instead become her opportunity to put forth her case and blame politics for the scrutiny of her role in Whitewater and a separate controversy over 1993 dismissals in the White House travel office.
On the very eve of the book tour the White House announced that it had found copies of the long-missing billing records from her Arkansas law firm. And it also made public a memorandum that raised questions about how involved she had been in seeking the dismissal of the travel office staff.
On Thursday, Carolyn Huber, a White House aide testified before Congress that she had found the copies of the long-missing billing records from the Rose law firm in early August on a table in the book room on the third floor of the White House residence.
She said the only ones who had access to the room are the Clintons, their guests and White House servants. Earlier in the week, Mrs. Huber had appeared before the Whitewater grand jury sitting in Little Rock, Ark.
She said she had placed the records in a box, brought them to her office and then examined them for the first time on Jan. 4. Both the President and Mrs. Clinton have said in interviews that they did not put the documents in the room, and White House aides have said they do not known how they got there.
Mr. Fabiani said that the subpoena for Mrs. Clinton was received a day after Mrs. Huber appeared before the Senate Whitewater committee. A number of White House aides who had access to the room and lawyers who handled the papers after their discovery have also been ordered to appear before the grand jury.
The records had been sought by Congress, the Resolution Trust Corporation and the independent counsel for the light they might shed on Mrs. Clinton’s legal work for the troubled savings association at the heart of Whitewater.
But the list of those summoned indicates that the Whitewater counsel is now trying to figure out who left the billing records in the book room, why it took so long for them to be produced and whether there had been any obstruction of justice.
The documents contain the handwritten notations of Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in 1993. Senate Republicans have charged the papers may have been improperly removed from Mr. Foster’s office after his death and intentionally withheld from investigators.
Other White House officials called to testify are Capricia Marshall, the clothing and makeup assistant to the First Lady; Gary Walter, the head White House usher, and Jane Sherburne, the special counsel who has been handling Whitewater matters and has been involved with trying to comply with subpoenas. David E. Kendall, the Clintons’ personal lawyer, and his assistant, Nicole Seligman have also been called. But Mr. Clinton, was not subpoenaed, Mr. Fabiani said.
Mr. Fabiani said that Mr. Kendall and White House lawyers met with representatives on Sunday and again today to arrange the details of Mrs. Clinton’s appearance before the grand jury.
There have been two independent counsels in the Whitewater. First was Robert B. Fiske, who was replaced in 1994 by Mr. Starr, a conservative Republican who served as Solicitor General in the Reagan and Bush Administrations. Previously the Clintons had been allowed to give sworn statements in depositions taken in the White House with their lawyers present.
On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Republicans on the Senate Whitewater committee today asked the Senate to give them more time and money to continue their hearings. The request was denounced by Democrats, who said the committee’s proceedings had become an important part of the Republican strategy to win back the White House.
In a report filed with the Senate, the Republicans asked for an open-ended extension of the life of the Whitewater committee beyond Feb. 29, when it is supposed to shut down, and for $600,000 beyond the $950,000 in financing that was approved by the Senate last May.
The report said the committee would be unable to complete its work by the deadline because the White House had been slow in responding to requests for information, and because the committee was forced to suspend important aspects of its investigation in deference to the independent counsel, who has said the Congressional inquiries could interfere with his examination.
Democratic leaders in the Senate promptly criticized the Republican request, saying it was possible for the committee to complete its work by Feb. 29, before the Presidential campaign is in high gear. But the Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, said it was unlikely that the Democrats would try to kill the proposal by a filibuster.
Republicans predicted that they would have the votes to extend the committee’s existence deep into the election year.
Think about that as you listen to the Republicans insist that Mueller has to wind up the investigation before the election.
By the way, James Comey was the Senate Whitwater Committee’s staff attorney working under Al D’Amato.
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