Trump Exaggerates Mueller Team’s Ties to Obama and Democrats

President Donald Trump said:

“So you have all these investigators; they’re Democrats. In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.”

The facts:

At least nine of the 17 lawyers on the team led by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, have donated to Democratic campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records. One has previously identified as a Democrat in a blog post.

Three others are registered as Democrats, The Washington Postand PolitiFact have reported. But the political affiliations of the remaining four lawyers are unclear.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office confirmed the names of the lawyers who are on the team.

Mueller is a registered Republican and Trump’s characterization of his work history is not entirely accurate.

A Republican president, George W. Bush, chose Mueller to lead the FBI for a 10-year term that began in 2001. Mueller was asked to stay on by President Barack Obama in 2011. Two years later, Mueller retired from the FBI after having served under Obama for about 4 1/2 years.

And Mueller was appointed to lead the Russia investigation by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, also a Republican.