Special counsel Robert Mueller's office has also asked for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his meetings with Russian officials. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Mueller requested phone records about Air Force One statement The special counsel has also recently made requests for documents concerning a statement made by Sean Spicer in the days preceding James Comey's firing as FBI director.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has sought phone records concerning the statement written aboard Air Force One defending a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians at Trump Tower last year that was set up by Donald Trump Jr., according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Mueller has also asked the White House for documents and emails connected to a May 3 press briefing where Sean Spicer said the president had confidence in James Comey as FBI director, these people said. The request seeks to determine what White House officials – particularly Spicer – knew about the president’s plans to fire Comey in the days before it happened, according to one of the people familiar with it.


The requests, first reported by the New York Times, are the latest indication that Mueller's probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election is expanding to include what has happened in the White House since Trump took office, including questions of obstruction of justice.

Most of the requests, one of these people said, focus on what happened inside the White House after Jan. 20.

White House officials are expected to be interviewed in upcoming weeks by Mueller’s office, but the interviews have not been set, according to one of the people with knowledge of the investigation.

The special counsel’s office has also asked for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his meetings with Russian officials, one of these people said.

Investigators are particularly interested in what happened inside the White House after former deputy attorney general Sally Yates told White House lawyer Don McGahn of the Flynn meeting with Russians. Flynn was said to have misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian officials during the presidential transition.

A lawyer for Flynn couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. He hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.

Mueller has also asked White House lawyers whether any documents related to Paul Manafort are in the White House, these people said. One White House official said there are few documents that even mention Manafort in the White House because he left the campaign in August.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer, declined to comment “out of respect” for Mueller’s team.

He has told others in the White House he wants to speed up the investigation, and was recently heard by the New York Times telling other lawyers they needed to provide all documents, even though another White House lawyer is arguing otherwise.

The statement about the Trump Tower meeting, written on the return from a European summit earlier this year, touched off a frenzy inside the White House, with dozens of phone calls from Air Force One and back in Washington and New York.

It came as the New York Times was preparing to report about the meeting between Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Manafort and Russians at Trump Tower, which was arranged after one of the Russians had promised “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. None of the people who attended have been accused of wrongdoing.

The statement sparked frustration from Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for the legal team, and Marc Kasowitz, a former lawyer, and partially led to Corallo’s resignation, because lawyers weren’t present and the president was involved.

Mueller’s request for documents surrounding the May 3 briefing from Spicer suggest he is trying to establish who knew what – and when – around the firing, according to legal observers and others involved in the case. He has requested any documents that would show Trump’s thinking, and who was involved. Spicer's briefing followed Comey’s testimony earlier that day in which he said he was “mildly nauseous” at the thought of having influenced the outcome of the 2016 election.

Trump fired Comey on May 9. White House officials say the decision was made at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey the weekend after Spicer’s news briefing.

Spicer declined to comment.

