ROBERT MUELLER

A felony case stemming from the U.S. Capitol riot appears to have been resolved in secret, with the man released from federal custody this week despite no public record of a conviction or sentencing.

Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against a onetime business partner of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

The appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s probe of Hunter Biden is bringing renewed attention on the role such prosecutors have played in history.

The House has rejected an effort to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff, voting to turn aside a Republican attempt to fine the Democrat over his comments about former President Donald Trump and investigations into his ties to Russia.

Before Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were leading rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they were allies.

An investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has finally been concluded.

A judge known for his care and cautiousness in presiding over litigation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks was selected Friday to decide whether Donald Trump’s criminal case proceeds in state or federal court.

There are now two special counsels investigating the handling of classified documents by two opposing U.S. presidents — a doubly tricky task for a Justice Department that must try to steer clear of politics.

The appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department probes into the discovery of classified documents at the home and former office of President Joe Biden has focused renewed attention on the role such prosecutors have played in modern American history.

It took less than a day for the Jan. 6 report to go from public unveiling to the bestseller list on Amazon.

As a businessman and president, Donald Trump faced a litany of lawsuits and criminal investigations yet emerged from the legal scrutiny time and again with his public and political standing largely intact.

Donald Trump has officially declared himself a candidate for president, but that won’t shield him from the same criminal investigations that confront him as an ordinary citizen.

Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin kept a low profile over the years, but he has been increasingly in the spotlight recently.

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been elected Arkansas governor and will be the first woman to lead the state.

Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted that he interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so.

The House Jan. 6 committee is interviewing Hope Hicks, a longtime aide to former President Donald Trump.

Former President Donald Trump once predicted that a special prosecutor appointed during his administration would uncover “the crime of the century” — a conspiracy to sink his 2016 campaign.

A jury has heard closing arguments in the trial of a think tank analyst accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a discredited dossier about former President Donald Trump.

In an extraordinary step, the House Jan. 6 committee has voted unanimously to subpoena former President Donald Trump – a final effort to get the full story of the Capitol insurrection as the panel wraps up its work by the end of the year.

The FBI agent who questioned an analyst charged with lying to the bureau about his role in the creation of a flawed dossier about former President Donald Trump has twice testified that he believes the analyst was truthful with him.

Donald Trump’s latest legal troubles — sweeping fraud allegations by New York’s attorney general and a stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed — have laid bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House.

A newly unsealed FBI document about the investigation at Mar-a-Lago not only offers new details about the probe but also reveals clues about the arguments Donald Trump's legal team intends to make.

Justice Department officials who evaluated then-President Donald Trump’s actions during the Russia investigation concluded that nothing he did, including firing the FBI director, rose to the level of obstruction of justice.

The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr improperly withheld portions of an internal memorandum Barr cited in announcing that then-President Donald Trump had not committed obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information about Russian interference in American elections, including a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a troll farm that officials say fueled a divisive social media campaign in 2016.

In a Jan. 6 committee hearing already sprinkled with notable moments, Rep. Liz Cheney saved perhaps the most startling one for last.

An upcoming hearing of the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection is expected to examine ties between people in former President Donald Trump's orbit and extremist groups who played a role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Two years after completing a White House summer internship, Cassidy Hutchinson was in the room where the president’s top aides debated how they could overturn his election loss.

Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has won the Republican nomination for governor in Arkansas.

A prosecutor says a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign who is charged with lying to the FBI early in the Trump-Russia probe sought to “use and manipulate” federal law enforcement to create an “October surprise” in the final weeks of the presidential race.

A jury has been picked in the trial of a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign who is accused of lying to the FBI as it investigated potential ties between Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.

The first trial resulting from special counsel John Durham’s investigation of the early days of the Trump-Russia probe hardly seems an explosive affair.

Mehmet Oz’s rivals in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate are escalating their attacks on the celebrity heart surgeon’s connections to his parents’ native country of Turkey, raising it as a possible national security issue.

The Justice Department is suing Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, seeking to recover nearly $3 million from undeclared foreign bank accounts.

U.S. intelligence officials think Russian President Vladimir Putin may use the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as a pretext to order a new interference campaign in American politics.

The U.S. government has seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, has been a federal appeals court judge for less than a year.

The New Yorker is collaborating with a division of Macmillan Publishers on a book edition of the House Select Committee’s planned report on the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol a year ago by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee say the CIA has a secret, undisclosed data repository that includes information collected about Americans.

A Chicago banker has been sentenced to a year in prison for his conviction in a scheme to make $16 million in loans to Paul Manafort to gain influence in the Trump administration.

Former Attorney General William P.

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone says he has asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

New York’s attorney general is seeking former President Donald Trump’s testimony in an ongoing civil investigation into his business practices, a person familiar with the matter said.

Lawyers for a Maryland woman charged along with her husband in a scheme to sell Navy submarine secrets to a foreign government are pushing back on prosecutors’ arguments that she was motivated to leave the United States because she was afraid of getting caught.

Supreme Court justices considering a major abortion case Wednesday will hear from just three lawyers: one representing the state of Mississippi, another representing Mississippi’s only abortion clinic and the last representing the Biden administration.

A federal appeals court is directing the Justice Department to disclose certain redacted passages from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report that relate to individuals who were investigated by prosecutors but not ultimately charged.

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says he has completed his three-year prison term and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement investigations.

A Russian analyst who provided information for a dossier of research used during the Trump-Russia investigation has been charged with lying to the FBI when questioned about his work.

U.S. authorities are expecting arrests and criminal charges related to ransomware in the coming weeks.

Federal agents have been carrying out “law enforcement activity” at a Washington mansion and New York City townhouse tied to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

House Democrats say they will vote on legislation this fall to curb the power of the president, an effort to rein in executive powers that they say President Donald Trump abused.

A prominent cybersecurity lawyer charged with making a false statement to the FBI has pleaded not guilty to the charge, stemming from an examination of the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian election interference.

A prominent cybersecurity lawyer has been charged in the special counsel’s probe of the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian election interference.

A federal report finds that in the run up to the 2020 presidential election U.S. states and territories had spent less than a third of the $805 million Congress had provided to shore up security for state and local election systems.

President Joe Biden has nominated acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to be his administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer on a permanent basis.

Some legislators want to change New York’s campaign finance rules after Gov. Andrew Cuomo used $285,000 in political donations to pay lawyers representing him in sexual harassment and misconduct investigations.

U.S. and British agencies have disclosed hacking techniques they say are used by Russian intelligence to target hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations, amid a wave of devastating cyberattacks around the world.

A little-known Indiana congressman is becoming an influential voice in the Republican Party.

Former President Donald Trump has made no secret of his long list of political enemies.

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has launched an investigation after revelations that former President Donald Trump’s administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn told lawmakers in a closed-door interview last week that he regarded President Donald Trump’s demand to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired as “a point of no return” for the administration if carried out.

Testimony to Congress from Donald Trump’s former top White House lawyer has “shed new light on several troubling events.”.

The Biden administration says it will appeal a judge’s order directing it to release a legal memo on whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice during the Russia investigation.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn will answer questions in private from the House Judiciary Committee in an apparent resolution of a longstanding dispute over his testimony, according to a court document filed Wednesday evening.

A federal judge has ordered the release of a legal memorandum the Trump-era Justice Department prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr before he announced his conclusion that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice during the Russia investigation.

A long-running federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine has moved back into public view after federal agents seized electronic devices from the former New York mayor.

Rudy Giuliani sought to discredit the federal investigation into his dealings in Ukraine a day after agents raided his home and office.

The Biden administration says it will establish a new center responding to what the U.S. intelligence community has assessed as attempts by Russia and other adversaries to interfere with American elections.

The Justice Department has sued Donald Trump's ally Roger Stone, accusing the conservative provocateur and his wife of failing to pay nearly $2 million in income tax.

The Treasury Department says Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian and Ukrainian political consultant, shared sensitive information from Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with Russian intelligence services.

The U.S. is expelling 10 Russian diplomats and ordering sanctions against dozens of other people and companies.

The House Ethics Committee has announced an investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Compared with most congressional newbies, it didn’t take Rep. Matt Gaetz long.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks before getting vaccinated at a church in the Harlem section of New York, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s Assembly has hired a Manhattan law firm to assist in its impeachment investigation of Gov. The Manhattan firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which has more than 900 attorneys, will lead the probe, said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine. “I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and our Judiciary Committee will conduct a full and fair investigation,” Heastie said. On Wednesday, Cuomo received his COVID-19 vaccination at a church in Harlem, where several Black leaders in New York City appeared at his side.

President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general Merrick Garland, addresses staff on his first day at the Department of Justice, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington. Welcome to the new Justice Department, likely a much tamer place to be after four years of blaring headlines under Donald Trump. The former president insisted that his attorney general, and entire department, be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation for political independence. “When I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland said, referring to Justice Department headquarters. AdAbout 15 minutes later, he took the oath of office, administered by Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Thursday it has called off upcoming arguments over a Trump administration plan to remake Medicaid by requiring recipients to work, agreeing to a request from the Biden administration. But the Biden administration already has decided preliminarily that work requirements do not fit with Medicaid's goal of providing health care to lower-income people. AdOther cases involved Trump administration immigration policies and a fight over unreleased portions of grand jury documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The high court had in December agreed to review lower-court decisions involving Arkansas and New Hampshire that found that the Trump administration’s support for work requirements went beyond what’s allowed by law. Arkansas had opposed the Biden administration’s request that the cases be dropped.

The full scope of the investigation is unclear, but it at least partly involves Giuliani's Ukraine dealings, the officials said. AdThe Foreign Agents Registration Act requires people who lobby on behalf of a foreign government or entity to register with the Justice Department. AdThe Justice Department requires that applications for search warrants served on lawyers be approved by senior department officials. Giuliani's attorney Robert J. Costello told The Associated Press he has “heard nothing” from federal prosecutors concerning Giuliani. Giuliani has said he had no knowledge of illegal donations and hadn’t seen any evidence that Parnas and Fruman did anything wrong.

The former "Apprentice" contestant is trying to get her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump moving again now that he's no longer president. Federal prosecutors in Washington, meanwhile, have charged some 200 Trump supporters with crimes related to the riot, including more serious conspiracy charges. There has been no indication that Trump would be charged in the riot though prosecutors have said they are looking at all angles. The same U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan also appears to have moved on from its investigation of Trump’s inaugural committee. Recently, her office has won a series of court rulings forcing Trump’s company and a law firm it hired to turn over troves of records.

The public wont see President Donald Trumps White House records for years, but theres growing concern that they wont be complete, leaving a hole in the history of one of Americas most tumultuous presidencies. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House records workers to spend hours taping them back together. He didn’t want to stop,” said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst. Apparently worried about leaks, higher-ups and White House lawyers became more involved in deciding which materials were catalogued and scanned into White House computer networks where they are automatically saved, this person said. After that, presidential records were no longer considered personal property but the property of the American people — if they are preserved.

WASHINGTON – “Where are they?” a Trump supporter demanded in a crowd of dozens roaming the halls of the Capitol, bearing Trump flags and pounding on doors. Trump told his morning crowd at the Ellipse that he would go with them to the Capitol, but he didn’t. Yet Trump, in a video posted 90 minutes after lawmakers were evacuated, told the insurrectionists “We love you. Video footage also showed officers letting people calmly walk out the doors of the Capitol despite the rioting and vandalism. He said security officers urged lawmakers to put gas masks on and herded them into a corner of the massive room.

Trump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

Trump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.

On Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned 15 people, including Collins. Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty as part of Mueller’s investigation – pleading guilty to lying to the FBI – and served a nearly two-week sentence in federal prison. The White House said Stockman had contracted coronavirus while in federal prison and has served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Esformes’ prison sentence was commuted by the president on Tuesday, but other aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and millions in restitution, remained intact. The White House said the commutation was supported by a number of former attorneys general and said Esformes is in declining health.

The pardons Wednesday of Manafort and Roger Stone, who months earlier had his sentence commuted by Trump, were particularly notable, underscoring the president's desire to chip away at the results and legacy of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Manafort, in a series of tweets, thanked Trump and lavished praise on the outgoing president, declaring that history would show he had accomplished more than any of his predecessors. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Trump’s legally troubled allies were not the only recipients of clemency.

On Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned 15 people, including Collins. Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty as part of Mueller’s investigation – pleading guilty to lying to the FBI – and served a nearly two-week sentence in federal prison. The White House said Stockman had contracted coronavirus while in federal prison and has served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Esformes’ prison sentence was commuted by the president on Tuesday, but other aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and millions in restitution, remained intact. The White House said the commutation was supported by a number of former attorneys general and said Esformes is in declining health.

He and his allies have discussed a range of other possibilities, including members of Trump's family and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Trump also commuted the sentences of five other people, including former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas. Trump also announced pardons for two people entangled in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has granted about 2% of requested pardons in his single term in office — just 27 before Tuesday's announcement. Bush, another one-term president, granted 10% of requests.

“For all four years, this is someone who at every opportunity tried to stretch presidential power beyond the limits of the law,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. I think he’s done tremendous damage in the last several weeks.”Jeopardizing the peaceful transfer of power was hardly Trump's first assault on the traditions of the presidency. He rage tweeted at members of his own party and used government property for political purposes, including the White House as the backdrop for his renomination acceptance speech. Trump used National Guard troops to clear a largely peaceful protest across from the White House for a photo-op. He held superspreader events at the White House and contracted the virus himself.

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 1988, file photo police and investigators look at what remains of the nose of Pan Am 103 in a field in Lockerbie, Scotland. The Justice Department expects to unseal charges in the coming days in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, according to a person familiar with the case. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)WASHINGTON – The Justice Department plans to unseal new charges in the coming days in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, according to a person familiar with the case. The New York-bound flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. One man — former Libyan intelligence official Abdel Baset al-Megrahi — was convicted in the Netherlands of the bombing, and a second Libyan suspect was acquitted of all charges.

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 1988, file photo police and investigators look at what remains of the nose of Pan Am 103 in a field in Lockerbie, Scotland. The Justice Department expects to unseal charges in the coming days in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, according to a person familiar with the case. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)WASHINGTON – The Justice Department plans to unseal new charges in the coming days in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, according to a person familiar with the case. We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice,” Barr said at a 1991 news conference announcing the charges. The New York-bound flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. Trump announced that Barr would be stepping down from his position on Dec. 23, amid lingering tension between the president and the attorney general over the Hunter Biden investigation. Appointing a special counsel could prove to be complicated, requiring consolidating different investigatory angles and bringing in someone new to run the probe and get up to speed. Either way, the probe is complicating Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general, upon whose shoulders this probe would land. Any nominee for attorney general is likely to face a mountain of questions at a confirmation hearing about how they would oversee the probe.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. Trump announced that Barr would be stepping down from his position on Dec. 23, amid lingering tension between the president and the attorney general over the Hunter Biden investigation. Trump was angry for days after learning that Barr knew of the Hunter Biden tax investigation before the election but did not disclose it. Appointing a special counsel for the Hunter Biden probe would also signal a more prolonged and complicated investigation than the current inquiry, so far largely centered on his taxes. Either way, the probe is complicating Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general, upon whose shoulders this probe would land.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on Operation Legend in St. Louis. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power. Trump was also said to blame Barr for comments from FBI Director Chris Wray on election fraud and mail-in voting that didn’t jibe with the president’s alarmist rhetoric.

But news of the probe, which was revealed on Wednesday and scrutinizes some of Hunter Biden's Chinese business dealings and other transactions, caught most of his father's staffers by surprise. Most notably, the probe casts a spotlight on one of Biden’s most important choices: his attorney general. And Biden aides believe that because other Hunter Biden stories have blown over, this will, too. Those were based in part on New York Post reporting on a laptop that supposedly once belonged to Hunter Biden and was abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. Hunter Biden, and his baby son, were right in the middle.

ATLANTA – Conservative attorney Sidney Powell has been unrelenting in her battle on behalf of President Donald Trump and the Americans who have pledged their faith in him, regardless of the facts of the 2020 election – namely, that Joe Biden won. “I’m going to release the Kraken,” Powell said in a Fox Business interview in mid-November, an apparent reference to the film “Clash of the Titans” in which Zeus gives the order to release the mythical sea monster. Powell did not immediately respond to a voicemail left Thursday at her Dallas law firm. Despite being tossed off the president’s legal team, Powell has continued to push his claim that the election was stolen. As they were filed, lawyers across the country reacted on social media, some puzzling about her strategy and others outright mocking her in paragraph-by-paragraph analysis.

WASHINGTON – Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland are emerging as the leading contenders to be nominated as President-elect Joe Biden’s attorney general, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Biden's thinking was described by people with knowledge of the presidential transition's internal thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly. Jones, who is white, has had a long-standing personal relationship with Biden dating back to Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988. Jones would not comment Tuesday on the possibility of a nomination as attorney general. The Biden team has also been considering a number of other potential candidates for the post, including former Justice Department official Lisa Monaco.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has declared that he has the “absolute right” to issue a pardon to himself. The Constitution’s text — affording the president “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment" — can be read to suggest that the Founding Fathers envisioned some sort of limitations on a president’s pardon power. The question of whether Trump will do it, though, is as unsettled as the question of whether he can. But, Tushnet said, Trump's lawyers could conceivably try to invoke double-jeopardy arguments to claim that a federal pardon should bar any New York state prosecution based on the same conduct. On the federal level, a self-pardon obviously handcuffs the Justice Department under President-elect Joe Biden from pursuing any federal case against Trump.

WASHINGTON – Outgoing Attorney General William Barr's decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the handling of the Russia probe ensures his successor won't have an easy transition. But the maneuvering over the special counsel is especially significant because it saddles Democrats with an investigation that they've derided as tainted. A special counsel can only be dismissed for cause. The Biden transition did not respond to a request for comment on the special counsel appointment. But Barr's decision could influence whom the president-elect puts forth as a nominee for attorney general.

Mueller, the ex-FBI director, rarely speaks publicly and has been virtually silent about his special counsel experience since testifying before Congress in July 2019. In two separate podcast episodes, each nearly an hour, Mueller doesn't talk about his work as special counsel. The Mueller interview is a bookend to Rosenberg's two-parter with Mueller's successor as FBI director, James Comey, in the podcast's first season. The experience inspired a lifetime of public service, primarily because Mueller was grateful to have survived. In the Mueller interview, Rosenberg said he relished the opportunity to get to know someone he knew only as a boss.

Barr told The Associated Press on Dec. 1, 2020, that he appointed Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal statute that governed special counsel Robert Muellers in the Russia probe. Barr told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal regulations that governed special counsel Robert Mueller in the original Russia probe. Under the regulations, a special counsel can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty or conflict of interest. The special counsel rules say the appointed person should be outside of government, but Barr pointed to specific provisions in his memo that would allow him to go around that rule. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said it was “obvious the system failed” and he concurred with the appointment of a special counsel to continue the investigation.