Trump group says memo should have kept email from prosecutor
WASHINGTON — A group representing President Donald Trump’s transition team says a memo in the hands of the General Services Administration should have stopped the agency from turning over tens of thousands of emails to the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
A lawyer for Trump for America said in a letter to GSA that a cache of transition emails the agency delivered last August to Robert Mueller’s investigators was actually owned and controlled by the transition. The transition claims it believes a GSA official communicated that warning in a memo to Mueller’s investigators before the special counsel took possession of the emails.
The transition group’s letter, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, asked GSA to find the memo under the federal Freedom of Information Act and turn it over to Trump for America. GSA provides workplaces, goods and services for federal agencies.
Trump for America general counsel Kory Langhofer did not explain in the letter how the group was made aware that the GSA memo exists but said “it is our understanding” the document was sent in June by the GSA’s top lawyer, Richard Beckler, to Mueller’s team. Beckler has since died.