--- title: Trump Lawyer Claims President Not Under Investigation description: Jay Sekulow, a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, claimed Trump is not under investigation despite the President tweeting he was canonical: https://time.com/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-18T15:02:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:12:14.784Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Lawyer Claims President Not Under Investigation og:description: Trump tweeted that he was under investigation on Friday og:url: https://time.com/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52c9295855ef6f1f/6988d13a196cf456d70408b5/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: President Trump Meets With Senate And House Leadership At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Lawyer Claims President Not Under Investigation twitter:description: Trump tweeted that he was under investigation on Friday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52c9295855ef6f1f/6988d13a196cf456d70408b5/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Lawyer: He's Not 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 [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 18, 2017 3:02 PM UTC  Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2017. Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2017. Olivier Douliery—Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 18, 2017 3:02 PM UTC [President Donald Trump’s lawyer](http://time.com/4822810/donald-trump-camp-david-fathers-day/) said Sunday that the President is not under investigation for possible obstruction of justice — despite Trump seemingly confirming that he was in a tweet earlier in the week. Lawyer Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump’s legal team, [said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-attorney-president-not-under-investigation-n773751) he has received “no notification” of an investigation into the President. “Let me be clear here,” he said. “The president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction.” But on Friday, Trump [appeared to confirm](http://time.com/4821334/president-trump-confirmed-investigation-comey/) a report [in the Washington _Post_](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=.1104e4e1f923) revealing that he was under investigation for possible obstruction of justice as part of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875701471999864833) [On CBS’s “Face the Nation,”](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-jay-sekulow-on-face-the-nation-june-18-2017/) Sekulow said Trump’s tweet was a reaction to the story — not an actual investigation. “The President issued that tweet on social media because of the report in the Washington _Post_ from five anonymous sources none of which, of course, anyone knows about, alleging that the President was under investigation in this purported expanded probe,” Sekulow said. “So the response there is clear and I want be really clear about this,” he added. “The president is not and has not been under investigation.” Citing five unnamed officials, the _Post_ reported last week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller expanded his investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election to include the President, too. A spokesman for another member of Trump’s legal team, attorney Marc Kasowitz, questioned the legality of leaked information [in an interview with TIME,](http://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/) but did not deny the report like Sekulow has. Trump is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice — which is defined as intentionally tampering with or intervening an investigation for corrupt purposes, according to the report. During his testimony in front of Congress earlier this month, former FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/4813966/donald-trump-james-comey-leak-tweets/) said he believes Trump fired him for his handling of the investigation into Russian interference, and said the President had asked him to stop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Though Comey could not say himself whether he thought Trump’s actions constituted an obstruction of justice, he said he was “sure” Mueller would look into it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/"},"headline":"President Trump's Lawyer: He's Not Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice","datePublished":"2017-06-18T15:02:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:12:14.784Z","description":"President Donald Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow said that the President is not under investigation for possible obstruction of justice — despite Trump seemingly confirming that he was in a tweet earlier in the week","url":"https://time.com/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52c9295855ef6f1f/6988d13a196cf456d70408b5/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52c9295855ef6f1f/6988d13a196cf456d70408b5/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Meets With Senate And House Leadership At The White House","caption":"President Trump Meets With Senate And House Leadership At The White House","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—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/4822961/donald-trump-lawyer-russia-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/","name":"President Trump's Lawyer: He's Not Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice"}}]}] ```