Congressional investigators want to question President Donald Trump’s longtime personal secretary as part of their ongoing probe into a controversial meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, ABC News has learned.
Rhona Graff, a senior vice president at the Trump Organization who has worked at Trump Tower for nearly 30 years, has acted as a gatekeeper to Trump. She remains a point of contact for the sprawling universe of Trump associates, politicians, reporters and others seeking Trump's time and attention, even now that he's in the White House.
Graff's position in Trump's orbit recently gained attention after Donald Trump Jr. released a June 2016 email exchange with British publicist Rob Goldstone leading up to the meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower.
“I can also send this info to your father via Rhona," Goldstone wrote Donald Jr. in the email, "but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.” Graff was not on the email chain and it's unclear if Goldstone ever made direct contact with her.
“Since her name is in the email, people will want her to answer questions,” said Rep. Peter King, R-New York, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who knows Graff. “If you go into Trump Tower, you’re going to mention her name.”
According to the article Trump himself does not participate in e-mail, so this Graff person receives any e-mails on his behalf, prints them out, and hands them to him to read.
If he has a response he writes it with a Sharpie marker and hands it back for her to send on his behalf.
This indicates that ANY electronic messages sent to Trump have first come through this one person, so of course investigators would want to talk with her.
Vanity Fair had this to say about this news:
Lawmakers’ interest in Graff is likely to infuriate Trump. Last month, the president—who has continually dismissed the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by allies of Hillary Clinton as an excuse for losing the election—said that special counsel Robert Mueller would be crossing a line if he began to investigate the Trump family, their finances, and the Trump Organization in a way that exceeded the initial scope of the Russia probe. Calling Graff to testify before Congress, or otherwise requesting information from her, might fall into that category.
Yep, I think that is probably accurate.
But then again I think that just about everything going on with these investigations right now must be causing Trump some sleepless nights.
(Heavy has some more information about Graff.)
Source http://ift.tt/2vsE7jL
