Källor: Trump svarar på Muellers frågor i veckan

The ongoing Special Counsel investigation is a United States law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation of any foreign government efforts to interfere, with large focus on Russia, in the 2016 presidential election. This investigation includes any possible links and/or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." In addition, the scope of the investigation reportedly includes potential obstruction of justice by Trump and others. The investigation, since it began May 17, 2017, has been conducted by the United States Department of Justice Special Counsel's Office, headed by Robert Mueller, a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Mueller took over several existing FBI investigations, including those involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.The investigation has resulted in dozens of indictments for federal crimes, and at least eight guilty pleas or convictions. In August 2018, Manafort was found guilty on eight felony counts of financial crimes in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and a month later he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, in a plea bargain for Manafort's full cooperation with prosecutors. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and became a cooperating witness in December 2017. Mueller further secured guilty pleas from Manafort's business partner Rick Gates, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, lobbyist W. Samuel Patten, and Richard Pinedo. All except van der Zwaan became cooperating witnesses to the probe. In February 2018, Mueller indicted 13 Russian citizens and 3 Russian entities, most notably the Internet Research Agency, and in June 2018 added an indictment of Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort's business partner. In July 2018, 12 members of the Russian GRU cyber espionage group known as Fancy Bear, responsible for the 2016 DNC email hacking, were indicted. Investigations into Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen were referred to the US Attorney's office of the Southern District of New York.While initially enjoying bipartisan support, the special counsel investigation became subject to criticism by Trump and his supporters in the conservative media within months, with Sean Hannity eventually promoting the "deep state" conspiracy theory. Several allegations of investigators' misconduct have been raised and were almost immediately debunked, including supposed unlawful wire-tapping of Trump Tower during the campaign, unmasking of Trump associates on intelligence intercepts, FISA court alleged abuse against Carter Page detailed in the Nunes memo, the alleged installation of a mole in the Trump campaign, and the FBI being denied to forensically analyze the DNC servers.