With the speed of Robert Mueller's investigation, it's easy to miss some of the details and assume others to fill in the space. Over the past few months, President Trump's personal lawyers have pushed back against reports that The President was under investigation. Just as the president and his administration have declared that negative reports against them are "fake news," one of the president's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, has claimed several times that Donald Trump was not under investigation.

President Trump is under investigation

But back in June the Washington Post reported in an article titled: "Special counsel is investigating Trump for possible Obstruction Of Justice, officials say" that Mueller had been speaking with intelligence officials looking into possible obstruction of justice by the -president.

This was a month after then-FBI director James Comey had been fired by Trump. Last Friday, the New York Times reported in an article titled: "Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey" that the special prosecutor obtained more evidence that would further indicate that obstruction.

Warning Trump before Comey firing

Those defending President Trump had said since the firing that there was no justice to obstruct because by firing James Comey, the president was not stopping the investigation. The NY Times article said that White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II had even warned the president that if he ended up firing Comey, it could expand into a larger investigation.

They reported that Trump understood but that he wanted to fire Comey anyway. McGahn was mentioned as being the one to "intercept" the original draft of the letter that President Trump wanted to send to Mr. Comey.

McGahn decided that the tone was too meandering and angry to send to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The article also reported that the letter referred to details about private discussions the president had with the FBI director which also referred to the FBI's Russia investigation.

The letter that was finally sent and made public on the day that James Comey was fired did mention the president saying to the FBI director -- and acknowledging three times -- that he was not personally under investigation. It's suggested that Sekulow has taken this view and used it as Trump's defense.

New momentum behind draft letter

Trump saying that he was not personally being investigated was seen as bizarre. The Times article also mentioned that McGahn referred to the original mention of those private conversations as "problematic." The report said that the letter was drafted by both Mr. Trump and his speech writer, Stephen Miller. Prior to this report, there was no indication that such a letter existed.

The original letter was reportedly sent to the Justice Department, and in the process, was altered by McGahn, and to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In the end, it was the altered versions that were made public. Now that Mueller has the original draft, which is said to be multiple pages, Democrats in Congress are already hoping it will be enough to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Cali.) said recently that it's time the White House was subpoenaed for those documents, which, as of this writing, they still do not have.
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