Like, when he promised that if I voted for Hillary, I'd have a president under investigation from day one?
Well, to be fair, he was right. We voted for Hillary and we have a president under investigation from day one.
According to the FBI, it'd be closer to Day -160
Nonsense. Trump has been under investigation since before the election (July of 2016 at the very least). How do we know? First, we have
the language of the special counsel's mandate:
The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James 8. Corney in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including:
(i)any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and
(ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and
(iii)any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).
If the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.
So the part at the beginning there is important in regard to when any such investigation first began. Comey testified in March, but he was testifying about what the FBI had been doing
previously. We know from
Factcheck.org that the FBI had been investigating since
at least July of 2016 and here is what Rosenstein noted in his letter to Chairman of the Judiciary Committee
Charles Grassley (emphasis/formatting in original):
The public announcement of the Special Counsel's appointment purposefully included no details beyond what Director Corney had disclosed at a public House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on March 20, 2017. Director Corney revealed that:
the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. Because it is an open, ongoing investigation, and is classified, I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining. At the request of congressional leaders, we have taken the extraordinary step ... of briefing this Congress's leaders, including the leaders of this Committee, in a classified setting, in detail about the investigation. 19
As is now publicly known, the Department of Justice and the FBI were conducting several investigations with potential relevance to Russian interference in the 2016 election when Special Counsel Mueller was appointed in May 2017. The public order explained that the Special Counsel will "ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election."20 The public order explained that the Special Counsel will "ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election."20 Special Counsel Mueller is authorized to investigate potential criminal offenses. Counterintelligence investigations involving any current or future Russian election interference are not the Special Counsel's responsibility.
Earlier in the same letter, Rosenstein clarified certain pertinent matters to your point (bolded emphasis mine):
When the Independent Counsel statute expired, the Department adopted the current Special Counsel regulation as an internal policy concerning the"appointment and management of Special Counsels. The regulation provides for congressional notification when an appointment is made and when it concludes. At the conclusion of the investigation, it requires notification to Congress of instances when the Attorney General concluded that a proposed action by the Special Counsel should not be pursued. The regulation contemplates ongoing consultation with Department components and continuing oversight by the Attorney General ( or the Acting Attorney General), who remains accountable as in all other cases handled by the Department of Justice. The regulation achieves the objective of conducting an independent investigation while following normal Department policies, including supervision by a Senate-confirmed officer.
There is no statutory requirement to identify criminal violations before appointing a Special Counsel from outside the Department, and there is no requirement to publicize suspected violations in the appointment order under the Special Counsel regulation. Only one previous Special Counsel was appointed under the current regulation: John Danforth, to investigate the Waco matter, on September 9, 1999. As with Special Counsel Mueller, Mr. Danforth's appointment order did not publicly specify a crime or identify anyone as a subject. 13
Special Counsel Mueller's Appointment and Delegated Authority
I determined that the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller to take charge of criminal matters that were already under investigation by federal agents and prosecutors was warranted under the Special Counsel regulation. The appointment order mentions 28 C.F.R. §§ 600.4 to 600.10 because they bear on the authority and duties of the Special Counsel. The public order did not identify the crimes or subjects because such publicity would be wrong and unfair, just as it would have been wrong and unfair to reveal that information prior to Special Counsel's appointment, and just as it would be wrong and unfair in other cases handled by a U.S. Attorney or Assistant Attorney General.
...
When Special Counsel Mueller was appointed, he received comprehensive briefings about the relevant allegations and documents that described them in considerable detail, as with previous special counsel appointments. Some ofthe FBI agents who were investigating those matters continued to do so. The Department assigned a team of career and non-career officials to provide supervision and assist the Acting Attorney General in determining which leads should be handled by the Special Counsel and which by other Department prosecutors, and to review any proposed indictments in conjunction with Department components that ordinarily would review them.
The regulation states that the Special Counsel has the powers and authority of a U.S. Attorney (who may or may not be Senate-confirmed) and must follow Department policies and procedures. 17 Under those policies and procedures, the Department should reveal information about a criminal investigation only when it is necessary to assist the criminal investigation or to protect public safety. 18
In August 2017, Special Counsel Mueller received a written internal memorandum from the Acting Attorney General. The memorandum eliminated the ability of any subject, target, or defendant to argue that the Special Counsel lacked delegated authority under 28 U.S.C. § 515 to represent the United States. The names of the subjects were already in Department files, but we did not publicly disclose them because to do so would violate the Department's confidentiality policies.
Tl;dr version: Trump has been under investigation since at least July of 2016. So far as this language is concerned, regardless of being POTUS, he is evidently not entitled to know the truth about whether or not he's under investigation, but likely has known all along.
My belief is that his camp has been using the fact that the FBI typically does not speak out publicly on any ongoing investigations--and must deny or deflect or obfuscate or just outright lie in regard to any direct questions, like, "Am I under investigation"--to their advantage ever since.
Iow, Trump knew that Comey could not confirm that Trump was under investigation. So he could keep asking him directly "Am I under investigation" and Comey would have no choice but to deny it. It's all in
how he denies it, of course. For example, here's how Comey
carefully dodged the question in the House:
“I was briefed sometime at the end of July that the FBI had opened counterintelligence investigations of four individuals to see if there was a connection between those — any of those four and the Russian effort,” Comey said Friday during closed-door questioning, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday. “And those four Americans did not include the candidate.”
Notice how that does not mean there weren't
other investigations going on in regard to individuals that
did include the President. He's not lying; he's just not revealing the full truth. Iow, he's doing precisely what was outlined by Rosenstein. And for damn good reason considering (a) revealing that the President of the United States is the target of such an investigation could have devastating effects on the economy of the entire world and (b) he had
just previously broken such protocols and it arguably threw an entire presidential election and he got fired for it (officially, but of course, we all know the real reason; he would not publicly declare that Trump wasn't under investigation).
It's abundantly clear in the completely unnecessary language Trump included in the letter informing
Comey he was fired (which, ironically triggered
another investigation specifically into Trump):
“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” Mr. Trump said in a letter to Mr. Comey dated Tuesday.
