How Political is the Mueller Probe?

Published: July 20, 2018, 8 a.m.

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It has been a torrid week for US-Russian relations. Days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, President Trump met President Putin in Helsinki. In an extraordinary press conference Mr Trump said he preferred to believe Mr Putin rather than US intelligence agencies when it came to accusations of Russian meddling in the US election. Mr Trump\\u2019s comments have caused outrage across the US political spectrum \\u2013 and led to a rare climb-down from Mr Trump, who said he \\u2018misspoke\\u2019.

Next week Mr Trump\\u2019s former campaign chief Paul Manafort goes on trial for tax evasion. Mr Trump\\u2019s links with Russia have long dogged him but will they now damage him? He has made it clear that he sees the Mueller investigation as biased, in his words \\u2018a rigged witch hunt\\u2019. With the US mid-term elections on the horizon, the fate of the Mueller investigation and Mr Trump\\u2019s political future both hang in the balance. Ritula Shah looks at the Mueller investigation and asks what it is doing, what has it discovered, and whether it is political.

(Photo: Special counsel Robert Mueller leaves after a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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