On March 22, 2019, the special counsel's office concluded their investigation and sent a report to the Department of Justice where it was received by Attorney General William Barr. Barr, at Trump's nomination, had become Attorney General on February 14, 2019, gaining oversight of the investigation from Trump-appointed Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Whitaker had assumed oversight from Rosenstein on November 7, 2018, after the resignation of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the investigation. Both Barr and Whitaker had been critical of the Mueller investigation before their appointments. Barr has faced bipartisan pressure to release the full report to the public, to the maximum extent permissible by law.
An aircraft owned by Andrei Skoch—a Russian billionaire subject to U.S. sanctions—arrived in the Seychelles a day before Prince himself did. The Washington Post had reported on April 3, 2017, that American, European and Arab officials said the Seychelles meeting was "part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump". Prince denied in November 30, 2017, House Intelligence Committee testimony that he had represented the Trump transition or that the meeting involved any back-channel. The Washington Post reported on March 7, 2018, that Mueller has gathered evidence that contradicts Prince, and ABC News reported on April 6, 2018, that Nader had met with Prince at a Manhattan hotel days before the Seychelles meeting and later provided him with biographical information about Dmitriev. CNN reported on March 6, 2018, that Nader had been detained and questioned by the FBI at Dulles International Airport as he returned from a trip abroad on January 17, 2018.
More InfoCharges were filed against Trump campaign members George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen. Charges were also filed against bank account seller Richard Pinedo, and lawyer Alex van der Zwaan as well as Paul Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik. Also indicted were Russia-based Internet Research Agency and related organizations and individuals directed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, and a group of Russian hackers referred to as Viktor Netyksho, et al. On March 16, 2020, the US government dropped the charges against Prigozhin-owned companies Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering.
More InfoAn aircraft owned by Andrei Skoch—a Russian billionaire subject to U.S. sanctions—arrived in the Seychelles a day before Prince himself did. The Washington Post had reported on April 3, 2017, that American, European and Arab officials said the Seychelles meeting was "part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump". Prince denied in November 30, 2017, House Intelligence Committee testimony that he had represented the Trump transition or that the meeting involved any back-channel. The Washington Post reported on March 7, 2018, that Mueller has gathered evidence that contradicts Prince, and ABC News reported on April 6, 2018, that Nader had met with Prince at a Manhattan hotel days before the Seychelles meeting and later provided him with biographical information about Dmitriev. CNN reported on March 6, 2018, that Nader had been detained and questioned by the FBI at Dulles International Airport as he returned from a trip abroad on January 17, 2018.
More InfoIn August 2018, a sealed court case was brought before Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the DC District Court, who oversees grand jury proceedings. The case bounced back and forth between Howell and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals over several weeks, as press speculation grew that the secret case was related to a witness challenging a Mueller subpoena. CNN reporters observed Mueller attorneys entering Howell's courtroom in September. CNN later confirmed that the case did involve a Mueller subpoena that was being challenged. The case was heard by a three-judge panel of the Circuit court on December 14, amid such secrecy that the entire fifth floor of the court building was cleared so reporters could not observe the proceedings or participants. Four days later, the judges ruled that the plaintiff, an unnamed foreign company, must comply with the subpoena. The company appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court on December 22, although the Court is not known to hear cases that are completely sealed. The Court denied the appeal on January 8, 2019.
More InfoNBC News reported on March 30, 2018, that Ted Malloch, a London-based American professor and author who worked with the Trump campaign, had been detained and questioned by the FBI two days earlier as he arrived at Boston Logan Airport after a flight from London. He was served with a subpoena to appear for questioning by Mueller's investigators on April 13, and presented with a warrant to have his phone seized and searched. Malloch told NBC in an email that FBI agents asked him a variety of questions, including about Roger Stone, author Jerome Corsi, and WikiLeaks. CNN reported that Malloch has written a forthcoming book alleging a "deep state" within the United States government fabricated the Steele dossier to destroy Trump. Corsi was subpoenaed for questioning by Mueller's investigators in September 2018, and by November he was facing perjury charges. That month, a draft court filing showed Corsi and Stone had exchanged emails in summer 2016 indicating their knowledge of impending email "dumps" by Wikileaks. In one email, Stone directed Corsi to contact Assange, which Corsi told investigators he had ignored, although investigators found he had passed the directive to an associate in London, whom Corsi later identified as Malloch.
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