Top officials
Who oversees the investigation?
Top officials
Who oversees the investigation?
Top officials
Who oversees the investigation?
After Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation for failing to disclose his private meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein took charge and appointed Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel on May 17. That was about a week after President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey. Though Mueller has a large degree of independence, Rosenstein oversees the investigation. He approves the special counsel’s budget and any expansion of the special counsel’s investigation.
Generally the FBI investigates crimes and the Justice Department prosecutes them.
Here is a breakdown:
Rod J. Rosenstein
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. He can remove him or veto his decisions, although he does not have day-to-day supervisory authority over the investigation.
Robert S. Mueller III
SPECIAL COUNSEL
Mueller, the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, is now the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation.
Mueller’s legal team includes prosecutors with different types of expertise, from white collar work to national security matters, as investigators continue to gather evidence in the case.
NATIONAL
SECURITY
CRIME
FRAUD/
CORRUPTION
APPEALS
(Higher Courts)
FBI
Until he was fired, James Comey, the former director of the FBI, was leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. After Comey’s firing, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Today, FBI agents gather evidence for Mueller’s team of lawyers.
Christopher Wray
FBI DIRECTOR
Wray is the new director of the FBI. Comey’s successor is under pressure to demonstrate the FBI’s political independence as it investigates Trump associates and Russian interference with the 2016 election.
Mueller’s team
Who are the investigators?
ROD J. ROSENSTEIN
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. He can remove him or veto his decisions, although he does not have day-to-day supervisory authority over the investigation.
Special Counsel
FBI
Mueller, the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, is now the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation.
Mueller’s legal team includes prosecutors with different types of expertise, from white collar work to national security matters, as investigators continue to gather evidence in the case.
Until he was fired, James Comey, the former director of the FBI, was leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. After Comey’s firing, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Today, FBI agents gather evidence for Mueller’s team of lawyers.
Muller's team specializes in:
CHRISTOPHER WRAY
FBI DIRECTOR
NATIONAL
SECURITY
Comey’s successor is under pressure to demonstrate the FBI’s political independence as it investigates Trump associates and Russian interference with the 2016 election.
CRIME
FRAUD/
CORRUPTION
APPEALS
(Higher Courts)
Mueller’s team
Who are the investigators?
ROD J. ROSENSTEIN
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. He can remove him or veto his decisions, although he does not have day-to-day supervisory authority over the investigation.
Special Counsel
FBI
Mueller, the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, is now the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation.
Mueller’s legal team includes prosecutors with different types of expertise, from white collar work to national security matters, as investigators continue to gather evidence in the case.
Until he was fired, James Comey, the former director of the FBI, was leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. After Comey’s firing, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Today, FBI agents gather evidence for Mueller’s team of lawyers.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY
Muller's team specializes in:
FBI DIRECTOR
NATIONAL
SECURITY
Wray is the new director of the FBI. Comey’s successor is under pressure to demonstrate the FBI’s political independence as it investigates Trump associates and Russian interference with the 2016 election.
CRIME
FRAUD/
CORRUPTION
APPEALS
Mueller’s team
Who are the investigators?
Mueller, the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, is now the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation. He has used a Washington grand jury to indict members of Trump’s campaign, and others including 13 individuals and three companies that allegedly operated a long-running scheme to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.
The grand jury is a powerful investigative tool that prosecutors use to compel witnesses to testify or force people or companies to turn over documents.
ROBERT S. MUELLER III
SPECIAL COUNSEL
There are 17 attorneys on Mueller’s team. Some are specialists in public corruption, others in national security, appeals or crime.
Fraud/Corruption
Greg Andres
Andrew D. Goldstein
Andres is a longtime white-collar criminal defense attorney at the Davis Polk firm. He had worked previously in the Justice Department's criminal division as a deputy assistant attorney general. He specializes in foreign bribery.
Goldstein headed the public corruption unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. He had worked there under Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired as U.S. attorney after he refused to resign.
Andrew Weissmann
Weissmann served as the chief of the Justice Department’s fraud section, where he oversaw corruption investigations, including the probe into cheating by Volkswagen on diesel emissions tests.
James Quarles
Quarles worked as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He came with Mueller from the law firm WilmerHale.
Rush Atkinson
Atkinson is a trial attorney in the Justice Department's fraud section.
Kyle Freeny
Jeannie Rhee
Freeny is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
Rhee is a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. She also came from WilmerHale.
National
Security
Crime
Zainab Ahmad
Aaron Zelinsky
Zelinsky is an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.
Ahmad is an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York who specializes in counterterrorism cases. She was recently profiled in the New Yorker, which reported she had prosecuted 13 terrorism cases since 2009 without a single loss.
Ryan Dickey
Dickey is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Aaron Zebley
Brandon Van Grack
Zebley is a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and served as Mueller’s chief of staff when Mueller was FBI director. He came with Mueller from WilmerHale.
Van Grack is a Justice Department national security division prosecutor.
Michael Dreeben
Appeals
(Higher Courts)
Dreeben is a Justice Department deputy solicitor general who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
Adam Jed
Jed is an appellate lawyer from the Justice Department’s civil division.
Brian M. Richardson
Elizabeth Prelogar
Richardson clerked at the Supreme Court and for a
2nd Circuit Appeals Court judge in
New York City.
Prelogar is a lawyer in the solicitor general’s office.
Scott Meisler
Meisler is an appellate attorney on detail from the criminal division.
ROBERT S. MUELLER III
SPECIAL COUNSEL
There are 17 attorneys on Mueller’s team. Some are specialists in public corruption, others in national security, appeals or crime.
Fraud/Corruption
Greg Andres
Andrew Weissmann
Andrew D. Goldstein
Goldstein headed the public corruption unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. He had worked there under Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired as U.S. attorney after he refused to resign.
Andres is a longtime white-collar criminal defense attorney at the Davis Polk firm. He had worked previously in the Justice Department's criminal division as a deputy assistant attorney general. He specializes in foreign bribery.
Weissmann served as the chief of the Justice Department’s fraud section, where he oversaw corruption investigations, including the probe into cheating by Volkswagen on diesel emissions tests.
James Quarles
Quarles worked as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He came with Mueller from the law firm WilmerHale.
Rush Atkinson
Atkinson is a trial attorney in the Justice Department's fraud section.
Jeannie Rhee
Rhee is a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. She also came from WilmerHale.
Kyle Freeny
National
Security
Freeny is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
Zainab Ahmad
Ahmad is an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York who specializes in counterterrorism cases. She was recently profiled in the New Yorker, which reported she had prosecuted 13 terrorism cases since 2009 without a single loss.
Crime
Aaron Zelinsky
Aaron Zebley
Zebley is a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and served as Mueller’s chief of staff when Mueller was FBI director. He came with Mueller from WilmerHale.
Zelinsky is an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.
Ryan Dickey
Brandon Van Grack
Dickey is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Van Grack is a Justice Department national security division prosecutor.
Appeals
Michael Dreeben
(Higher Courts)
Dreeben is a Justice Department deputy solicitor general who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
Adam Jed
Jed is an appellate lawyer from the Justice Department’s civil division.
Elizabeth Prelogar
Brian M. Richardson
Prelogar is a lawyer in the solicitor general’s office.
Richardson clerked at the Supreme Court and for a 2nd Circuit Appeals Court judge in New York City.
Scott Meisler
Meisler is an appellate attorney on detail from the criminal division.
ROBERT S. MUELLER III
SPECIAL COUNSEL
There are 17 attorneys on Mueller’s team. Some are specialists in public corruption, others in national security, appeals or crime.
Fraud/Corruption
Andrew D. Goldstein
Greg Andres
Andrew Weissmann
Goldstein headed the public corruption unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. He had worked there under Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired as U.S. attorney after he refused to resign.
Andres is a longtime white-collar criminal defense attorney at the Davis Polk firm. He had worked previously in the Justice Department's criminal division as a deputy assistant attorney general. He specializes in foreign bribery.
Weissmann served as the chief of the Justice Department’s fraud section, where he oversaw corruption investigations, including the probe into cheating by Volkswagen on diesel emissions tests.
James Quarles
Quarles worked as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He came with Mueller from the law firm WilmerHale.
Jeannie Rhee
Rhee is a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. She also came from WilmerHale.
Rush Atkinson
Atkinson is a trial attorney in the Justice Department's fraud section.
National
Security
Kyle Freeny
Freeny is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
Zainab Ahmad
Ahmad is an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York who specializes in counterterrorism cases. She was recently profiled in the New Yorker, which reported she had prosecuted 13 terrorism cases since 2009 without a single loss.
Crime
Aaron Zebley
Aaron Zelinsky
Zelinsky is an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.
Zebley is a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and served as Mueller’s chief of staff when Mueller was FBI director. He came with Mueller from WilmerHale.
Brandon Van Grack
Ryan Dickey
Dickey is an attorney on detail from the criminal division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Van Grack is a Justice Department national security division prosecutor.
Michael Dreeben
Appeals
Dreeben is a Justice Department deputy solicitor general who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
(Higher Courts)
Adam Jed
Jed is an appellate lawyer from the Justice Department’s civil division.
Elizabeth Prelogar
Brian M. Richardson
Prelogar is a lawyer in the solicitor general’s office.
Richardson clerked at the Supreme Court and for a 2nd Circuit Appeals Court judge in New York City.
Scott Meisler
Meisler is an appellate attorney on detail from the criminal division.
Kevin Uhrmacher contributed to this report.
More stories
Who has been charged in the Russia probe and why
Former Trump campaign officials have been charged by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in an ongoing probe of possible Russian influence in last year’s election.
Here’s what we know so far about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests
Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies are scrutinizing connections between Russia and the Trump campaign as they investigate evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Here are members of Team Trump who are known to have Russian connections and the story lines that have made those ties relevant.
The Post’s new findings in Russia’s bold campaign to influence the U.S. election
Russia’s election inference was one of the most divisive topics of the presidential campaign. Here is a look at the events in the administration as the White House proposed various ways to punish Russia during the final months of the presidential campaign.
The love-hate relationship between Trump and Sessions, in four acts
When Donald Trump increased the pressure on Jeff Sessions with public attacks on Twitter and in media interviews, Sessions said that even though he has been hurt by Trump’s words, he is not stepping down. Here is a look at Sessions's tenure as attorney general in four acts.
