--- title: Donald Trump Under Investigation for Obstruction: Report description: A spokesman for President Donald Trump's personal attorney hit back against a report that Robert Mueller is investigating the president canonical: https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-14T23:52:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T06:52:10.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Report: Trump Is Under Investigation for Possible Obstruction of Justice og:description: Trump's attorney hit back against the report, but he didn't deny it og:url: https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt258a2910b8b7fcf8/6988d1874ee2629f3330db67/gettyimages-694251858.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Report: Trump Is Under Investigation for Possible Obstruction of Justice twitter:description: Trump's attorney hit back against the report, but he didn't deny it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt258a2910b8b7fcf8/6988d1874ee2629f3330db67/gettyimages-694251858.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Attorney Hits Back Against Report That President Trump Is Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:52 AM UTCPublished: Jun 14, 2017 11:52 PM UTC  President Donald Trump at the White House on June 9, 2017. President Donald Trump at the White House on June 9, 2017.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:52 AM UTCPublished: Jun 14, 2017 11:52 PM UTC A spokesman for [President Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4817497/donald-trump-saudi-arabia-weapons/) personal attorney hit back against a Washington _Post_ report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the president for possible obstruction of justice. The _Post_ [reported Wednesday evening ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-is-investigating-trump-for-possible-obstruction-of-justice/2017/06/14/9ce02506-5131-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.c4600393c7b2)that Mueller has widened his investigation to include whether Trump obstructed justice, citing five people briefed on the requests and noting that the investigation began after Comey was fired last month. Mark Carallo, a spokesman for Trump’s attorney Marc Kasowitz, questioned the legality of the leaking information about the investigation, calling it “outrageous, inexcusable and illegal” in a statement to TIME. He did not deny the _Post_ report. According to the _Post,_ Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, Director of National Security Agency Mike Rogers, and Rogers’ former deputy Richard Ledgett agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s team. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, to handle the Russia investigation. Obstruction of justice[ is essentially defined](http://time.com/4781655/donald-trump-james-comey-michael-flynn-obstruction-of-justice/) as intentionally intervening or tampering with an ongoing investigation. However, the key to proving obstruction of justice is that the intervention was done for corrupt purposes. “If it’s a threat, that makes it a crime. If it’s not a threat — but a request — it could still be a crime if the threat is motivated by a corrupt purpose,”Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford, told TIME last month. Comey had confirmed during a congressional testimony in March that the FBI was investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, which included possible collusion between the country and Trump associates. The[ _Post_ reported June 6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-intelligence-official-told-associates-trump-asked-him-if-he-could-intervene-with-comey-to-get-fbi-to-back-off-flynn/2017/06/06/cc879f14-4ace-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.652221694788) that Coats had told associates Trump had asked him to intervene with Comey when he was still FBI Director to reduce focus on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The _New York Times_ reported last month that Trump himself had asked Comey to halt any investigation into Flynn, an interaction Comey confirmed during his congressional testimony earlier this month, but Kasowitz denied. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/"},"headline":"Attorney Hits Back Against Report That President Trump Is Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice","datePublished":"2017-06-14T23:52:35.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T06:52:10.000Z","description":"“The FBI leak of information regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal”","url":"https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt258a2910b8b7fcf8/6988d1874ee2629f3330db67/gettyimages-694251858.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt258a2910b8b7fcf8/6988d1874ee2629f3330db67/gettyimages-694251858.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis","caption":"President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","name":"Attorney Hits Back Against Report That President Trump Is Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice"}}]}] ```