President Donald Trump is at his New Jersey country club for the next two-and-a-half weeks, but headaches from Washington could follow him to the golf course. The investigation into the president and his campaign is said to be accelerating, while allies in Congress are moving to check his power. Josh Robin filed the following report.
On the way to his New Jersey golf club, President Donald Trump ignored questions about an ongoing investigation.
The special prosecutor isn't talking, either. But Robert Mueller appears to be crossing an important threshold. He's impaneled a grand jury in Washington, required for interviews and documents into alleged Russian involvement in his campaign, and possibly more.
"This would be far from the first case in which an investigation started with one basis ends up pursuing issues that weren't apparent to anybody at the outset," said former federal prosecutor Brian Jacobs.
Trump is pre-emptively dismissing the investigation as partisan.
"They're trying to cheat out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us," Trump said.
But the Senate, led by Trump's own party, doesn't see it as fake. They've arranged to block Trump from appointing a new attorney general during the Senate vacation.
Trump has complained Jeff Sessions' recusal from the Russia probe is why the president is under investigation.
Sessions must have pleased Trump Friday, ramping up probes into unauthorized disclosures.
"Here's what I want to tell every American today. This nation must end this culture of leaks," Sessions said.
"It will be interesting to see whether any of these prosecutions actually pan out," Jacobs said.
Brian Jacobs was an assistant U.S attorney under Preet Bharara and is now a lawyer with the firm of Morvillo Abramowtiz. He says while some leaks jeopardize investigations, juries may not care about those that simply damage the president politically.
"Any time a prosecutor is presenting a criminal case to a jury, the jury is going to be asking themselves whether it's an appropriate use of the criminal justice system," Jacobs said.
Meanwhile, in the president's hometown, Trump's company has apparently been in a lease dispute with the U.S. Secret Service.
The Secret Service is now operating out of a trailer after it was kicked out from a unit below the president's apartment.
The Secret Service tells the Washington Post the move doesn't impact their overall security plan.