--- title: Robert Mueller Convenes Grand Jury in Russia Trump Probe description: Robert Mueller has convened a grand jury in Washington to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. canonical: https://time.com/4886692/robert-mueller-grand-jury-russia-probe-donald-trump/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-03T20:36:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:51:34.314Z article:section: Politics og:title: Special Counsel Mueller Convenes Grand Jury in Russia Probe og:description: A grand jury will investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election og:url: https://time.com/4886692/robert-mueller-grand-jury-russia-probe-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81c6cf3f7cac877b/6988d85e86f68e42e76e5dc5/robert-mueller-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: FILE PHOTO - Robert Mueller at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Special Counsel Mueller Convenes Grand Jury in Russia Probe twitter:description: A grand jury will investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81c6cf3f7cac877b/6988d85e86f68e42e76e5dc5/robert-mueller-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Special Counsel Robert Mueller Convenes Grand Jury in Russia Probe > 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 [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Aug 3, 2017 8:36 PM UTC  Robert Mueller at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on June 19, 2013. Robert Mueller at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on June 19, 2013. Larry Downing—Reuters by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Aug 3, 2017 8:36 PM UTC (WASHINGTON) – Special counsel Robert Mueller has convened a grand jury in Washington to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. The grand jury began its work in recent weeks and is a sign that Mueller’s inquiry into Russia’s efforts to influence the election and whether it colluded with President Donald Trump’s campaign is ramping up, the Journal said. Russia has loomed large over the first six months of the Trump presidency, with U.S. congressional panels also investigating the Russian election interference that U.S. intelligence agencies believe was meant to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Moscow denies any meddling and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign, while regularly denouncing the investigations as political witch hunts. Mueller’s use of a grand jury could give him expansive tools to pursue evidence, including issuing subpoenas and compelling witnesses to testify. A grand jury is a group of ordinary citizens who, working behind closed doors, considers evidence and potential criminal wrongdoing that a prosecutor is investigating and decide on whether charges should be brought. U.S. stocks and the dollar weakened following the news, while U.S. Treasury securities gained. The S&P 500 Index initially dropped about 0.20 percent and the dollar index , which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of trading-partner currencies, slid 0.18 percent. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Mueller, who was appointed special counsel in May, brought a former U.S. Justice Department official to join his investigative team. 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