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up front Monday 18 deceMber 2017

Tax Victory

Continued from Front spokesman for Mueller said
the records were obtained
Mueller has gained access appropriately.
to thousands of emails sent “When we have obtained
and received by Trump of- emails in the course of our
ficials before the start of ongoing criminal investiga-
his administration, yielding tion, we have secured ei-
attacks from transition law- ther the account owner’s
yers and renewing chatter consent or appropriate
that Trump may act to end criminal process,” said Pe-
the investigation. ter Carr.
Though Treasury Secretary But many Trump allies used
Steve Mnuchin was doing the email issue as another
a victory lap on the tax bill cudgel with which to bash
on the Sunday talk show the probe’s credibility.
circuit, but first had to field Members of the conser-
questions on CNN’s “State vative media and some
of the Union” about wheth- congressional Republicans
er believed Trump would have begun to system-
trigger the process to fire atically question Mueller’s In this Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016 file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at
Mueller. “I don’t have any motives while the president Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala.
reason to think that the himself called it a “dis- Associated Press
president is going to do grace” that some texts and the end of what has been bama in a generation and for Alabama was we had
that, but that’s obviously emails from two FBI agents a disappointing legislative cutting Republican control a flawed candidate who
up to him,” said Mnuchin. contained anti-Trump rhet- year for the party that con- of the Senate to just two, won the Republican pri-
Mnuchin added that “we oric. One of those agents trols the White and both 51-49. mary and who couldn’t
have got to get past this was on Mueller’s team and houses of Congress. At Moore was aggressively win the general election,”
investigation, it’s a giant has been removed. the same time, the GOP is backed by ex-White House Cornyn said on ABC’s “This
distraction” but declined Michael Caputo, a former reckoning with a brewing chief strategist Steve Ban- Week.” ‘’Bannon can do
to elaborate on how he Trump campaign aide, intraparty war that helped non, who has vowed to whatever he sees fit. It’s
would want it to end. Marc called the investigation an cost it a Senate seat in challenge establishment a free country. But I don’t
Short, the White House di- “attack on the presidency” Alabama. Roy Moore, the Republicans. think his track record, par-
rector of legislative affairs, and told CNN there are former chief justice of Ala- Despite the defeat, Ban- ticularly now in losing Ala-
was also peppered with “more and more indica- bama’s supreme court, lost non has vowed to press on bama, one of the reddest
questions about Mueller’s tions that the Mueller inves- a special election on Tues- with his insurgency in next states in the country, par-
fate during his own ap- tigation is off the rails.” day, handing Democrats year’s mid-term elections. ticularly commends him for
pearance on NBC’s “Meet The talk of firing Mueller has their first Senate seat in Ala- “I think the explanation his expertise.”q
the Press” and again urged set off alarm bells among
a quick end to the inves- many Democrats, who
tigation but insisted that warn it could trigger a con-
Trump has not discussed fir- stitutional crisis.
ing Mueller. Some Republicans also ad-
“There’s no conversation vised against the move,
about that whatsoever in including Senator John
the White House,” Short Cornyn of Texas who
said. But even as the ad- deemed the idea “a mis-
ministration continued to take.” The rumor mill over-
pledge its cooperation with shadowed the Republican
Mueller, Trump allies have tax plan, which is set to be
ratcheted up their claims voted on this week. The
that the investigation is un- measure would give the
lawful and compromised. largest breaks to the richest
On Saturday, the general Americans but Trump has
counsel for the transition attempted to sell the bill as
group sent a letter to two a “Christmas present” for
congressional committees middle-class Americans in
arguing Mueller’s investi- part because it would trig-
gators had improperly ob- ger job growth.
tained thousands of transi- “As a candidate, I prom-
tion records. ised we would pass a mas-
The investigators did not di- sive TAX CUT for the ev-
rectly request the records eryday working American
from Trump’s still-existing families who are the back-
transition group, Trump bone and the heartbeat of
for America, and instead our country. Now, we are
obtained them from the just days away...,” Trump
General Services Adminis- said in a tweet from Camp
tration, a separate federal David, where he is spend-
agency that stored the ma- ing the weekend.
terial, according to those The White House and Re-
familiar with the Trump publicans on the Hill are
transition organization. A eager to claim a victory at