Special counsel Robert Mueller issued subpoenas to more than a dozen top officials from U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign last month, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The report says that the subpoenas are the “first official order” for information from the campaign, according to anonymous source. That source told the Journal the campaign is responding to the subpoenas on an “ongoing” basis.
Mueller’s team issued the subpoena in October, requesting that documents from several key campaign officials be handed over which include documents related to Russia. While the subpoena will not force the officials to testify, the Trump campaign was reportedly taken aback by the order.
According to the Journal, the campaign had been voluntarily cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.
Last month, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort along with his former business partner Richard Gates, was charged with several counts of conspiracy, including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering in relation to work he’d done for a Russian political group in the Ukraine.
While the subpoena marked the first time in the special counselor’s investigation that Trump campaign has been ordered to hand over documents or information, Manafort and his associates have been subpoenaed by Mueller’s team in the past. Manafort left the Trump campaign in Aug. 2016.
Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in late October to lying to FBI agents about his contact with Russian officials.
Mueller is currently conducting an investigation into potential meddling by the Russian government in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign and collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.