Republicans demand answers on Mueller team wiping phones, suggest ‘anticipatory obstruction of justice’
Congressional Republicans call the purported accidental ‘wiping’ an ‘amazing coincidence’
By
Brooke Singman | Fox News
Congressional Republicans demanded answers on Friday as to whether there “was a widespread intentional effort” to wipe the mobile devices of multiple people on former Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s team during the Russia probe, and suggested this could amount to “anticipatory obstruction of justice.”
President Trump weighed in on the matter Saturday morning. “ALERT: So now we find out that the entire Mueller “hit squad” illegally wiped their phones clean just prior to the investigation of them, all using the same really dumb reason for this ‘accident,’” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Just like Crooked Hillary smashing her phones with a hammer, & DELETING HER EMAILS!”
“How different my life would have been if this fraud on America was never committed!!!” he said.
“All that time and money spent, and it turns out that the Mueller Investigation was a total SCAM!” Trump
later added.
The calls come after newly released records from the Justice Department showed that at least several dozen phones belonging to members of
Mueller’s team were wiped of information because of forgotten passcodes, irreparable screen damage, loss of the device, intentional deletion or other reasons—all before the Justice Department inspector general’s office could review the devices. . . .
. . . .“It appears that Special Counsel Mueller’s team may have deleted federal records that could be key to better understanding their decision-making process as they pursued their investigation and wrote their report,” Grassley wrote. “Indeed, many officials apparently deleted the records after the DOJ Inspector General began his inquiry into how the Department mishandled Crossfire Hurricane.” . . . .
. . . .“I’m not a lawyer, but I am aware of the concept of anticipatory obstruction of justice,” Johnson told Fox News in a text message, saying the action of “accidentally wiping a phone because you entered the wrong password too many times” makes him “HIGHLY skeptical,” and a dozen people making “the same mistake is COMPLETELY unbelievable.” . . . .
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