Vice President Mike Pence retained Richard Cullen, the chairman of McGuireWoods and a former U.S. attorney, in June to represent him in the Russia probe. | Paul Sancya/AP Photo Pence sent lawyer to meet with Mueller over the summer The attorney sat down with the FBI special counsel at the vice president's request to express willingness to cooperate with the Russia probe.

Vice President Mike Pence’s outside lawyer met privately with special counsel Robert Mueller at Pence’s request last summer, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

The meeting, which has not been previously reported, was held at Pence’s request to express his willingness to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, the person said.


Pence retained Richard Cullen, chairman of McGuireWoods and a former U.S. attorney, in June to represent him in the Russia probe. The meeting with Mueller took place soon after Cullen accepted the job.

Pence’s office, Mueller’s office and Cullen all declined to comment.

The White House has repeatedly said it intends to cooperate fully with Mueller’s probe and has been providing relevant documents as requested.

Mueller was appointed in May to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and whether the Trump campaign colluded in the effort. His appointment came after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.

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Pence has largely remained on the sidelines of the Russia controversy, but he became a central figure in the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn, after Trump said he fired Flynn for misleading Pence about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador during the transition. The vice president was also at an Oval Office meeting after which Trump cleared the room to speak alone with Comey. Comey claims that during that conversation, Trump said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

After news emerged that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort had met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer to collect what they were told was damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Pence’s office was quick to note that the June 2016 meeting took place before Pence was involved in the campaign.

Meetings like the one between Mueller and Cullen are common in high-profile investigations like the Mueller probe, especially if the person in question intends to cooperate and the lawyers have an existing relationship, as Mueller and Cullen do from their time in the Justice Department, according to other attorneys.

“It isn’t always done, but when a lawyer represents somebody who he anticipates the prosecutors may want to talk to and show that he wants to cooperate, that would be normal,” said William Jeffress, the attorney who represented Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, during the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.