The accounts include the team’s political leadership and the foreign-policy team, the sources said.

The emails include 12 accounts, one of which contains about 7,000 emails, the sources said.

According to Axios boss Mike Allen, special counsel Robert Mueller secretly got his hands on “many tens of thousands,” of emails exchanged by Trump transition officials. Mueller obtained the emails through the General Services Administration (GSA) that were sent using Presidential Transition Team addresses ending in “ptt.gov.”

Why it matters: The transition emails are said to include sensitive exchanges on matters that include potential appointments, gossip about the views of particular senators involved in the confirmation process, speculation about vulnerabilities of Trump nominees, strategizing about press statements, and policy planning on everything from war to taxes.

Trump transition officials only learned Mueller secretly obtained the emails after noticing special counsel investigators asking detailed questions based on the exchanges.

Trump transition officials were reportedly surprised by the move, as they have fully cooperated with the special counsel’s office since the probe began.

According to Allen, the special counsel’s office will use the emails to “generate new leads.”

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team will meet with President Trump’s legal team “as soon as next week,” reports CNN.

Trump’s lawyers are finding one other hopeful sign: The special counsel has asked the White House for a limited scope of documents related to the President directly, largely having to do with the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, two of the sources familiar with the matter told CNN. That could indicate limited interest in Trump himself, the lawyers believe.

Mueller’s probe is facing extraordinary public relations headwinds following reports the special counsel’s office removed an FBI agent who expressed anti-Trump views.

This week, Fox News published a portion of the approximately 10,000 texts messages sent between FBI agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page. Among the messages is an exchange revealing Strzok and Page discussed an ‘insurance policy,’ against a Trump presidency.