Who says Peter Carr, spokesman for the Mueller investigation, always gives “no comment”? This morning, Benjamin Wittes and I were writing a piece for The Atlantic, which included a line about the staffing of the special counsel’s office. President Trump often calls the office a “Gang of Angry Democrats.” In the president’s tweets, sometimes the gang has 17 members and sometimes it has 13. The New York Times more recently reported that there were 14 lawyers—although we deduced from other reporting the number is now more likely to be 12. We decided it would be prudent to write to the special counsel’s office to verify the number of “angry Democrats” on the Mueller team. So I did:

Hello Mr. Carr, I and my colleague Benjamin Wittes are writing a piece for the Atlantic about reports that the special counsel’s investigation is “wrapping up.” The President has said that there are “17 Angry Democrats” working on the investigation and we are trying to get an accurate number. Based on recent reporting by the New York Times and other outlets, we count that there are currently 12 lawyers on the team. Could you confirm the numbers of attorneys staffing the special counsel’s investigation? Thank you, Mikhaila Fogel

Eight minutes later, I received an email from the famously reticent Carr, an email which confirmed that the number was 12 and included useful detail on who is currently working for the office. Carr’s email did not address either the lawyers’ emotional state or anger level or their partisan affiliations. Here is what he said: