New York Times reports big development in Mueller investigation

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times reported that special counsel Robert Mueller can corroborate the claims in former FBI director James Comey's famed memos because of notes taken by former Trump press secretary Reince Priebus.

What did Mueller discover?

The report says that Priebus would take copious notes of meetings that he had with President Donald Trump, and that these are in Mueller's possession and corroborate the claims made by Comey.

One of those is that Trump told Comey to tell the public the president was not being investigated.

The special counsel has received handwritten notes from Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, showing that Mr. Trump talked to Mr. Priebus about how he had called Mr. Comey to urge him to say publicly that he was not under investigation.

The report says that one of his lawyers was so distressed that Trump might fire Comey that he misled the president about his ability to do so.

Influencing Sessions

The report also claims that Trump tried to get his lawyer Donald McGahn to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the investigations into Russian collusion and election interference in order to protect the president.

Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama.

This fits with prior reports about Trump's fury over the Sessions recusal, which some said led to Trump berating Sessions in front of other administration officials.

Anonymous sources

The report is based on anonymous sources in the White House, a practice that the president and his defenders have denounced vehemently.

Here's a news video about the report:

NYT's Michael Schmidt explains now Reince Priebus notes confirm James Comey's notes about pressure from Trump. pic.twitter.com/Xvcs4zEswj

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 5, 2018