Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, which has been a continual distraction to President Donald Trump, hits the one-year mark this Thursday, Axios reported Monday.
The president complains to officials in his administration about the FBI raids on his personal attorney Michael Cohen as often as 20 times a day, insists he needs better "TV lawyers" to defend him on the news, and is impatient to stop the "witch hunt," sources told The Washington Post.
The Post said its report is based on interviews with 22 White House and Justice Department officials and witnesses, as well as Trump confidants and attorneys connected to the probe.
Despite the president's pushback against the investigation and attempts to discredit it, the probe has plowed ahead, securing indictments or guilty pleas involving 19 people and three companies and holding interviews with most of the president's closest aides and outside associates.
It has resulted in a guilty plea from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who is cooperating, and an indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose trial in Virginia is set for July and in Washington in September on charges of conspiracy, as well as bank and tax fraud.
Although many Trump associates say they are confident he will be cleared, they are worried the investigation might result in more indictments, including some in the Trump family.
Mueller is also looking into allegations the president obstructed justice, such as his request of then-FBI director James Comey to discontinue the Flynn investigation and his firing of Comey, as well as the president's misleading statement on behalf of Donald Trump Jr. about his meeting with a Russian lawyer.
The investigation has also shined a light on the boundaries of presidential power, as Trump has battled with the leadership of his own Justice Department and FBI and threatened to defy a subpoena to testify.
Although there has been a modest drop in support of continuing the investigation in some surveys, an April edition of The Washington Post-ABC News poll found 69 percent of Americans backing the probe and 25 percent opposing it.
One of the hallmarks of the Mueller probe has been its details have been kept, to a large extent, secretive.
The investigation is even more expansive than many have thought, according to The Atlantic.
The publication reported Monday, for example, that Mueller's team allegedly had a lawyer detained who has ties to Russia and is closely associated with Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious professor who claimed during the election that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.