The indictments special counsel Robert Mueller obtained Friday in the Russia investigation may be targeting other defendants and not one specific individual, journalist Carl Bernstein said.
"There are others who may be subject to similar charges, who have further knowledge about dealings with Russia," Bernstein, whose reporting led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
"So, it may be aimed at these prospective indictees as well, not simply this person or persons they want to flip."
CNN disclosed Friday that Mueller's investigators had obtained the first federal grand jury indictments in its probe into Moscow's meddling in last year's presidential election.
The charges remained sealed under a judge's order, according to the report.
Bernstein also noted that potential witnesses in Mueller's probe faced "potential perjury traps" because investigators have obtained more than 21,000 emails written by Trump campaign staff or White House personnel.
"Those are potentially perjury traps for all the people that Mueller is interviewing, who have provided those e-mails," he told Cooper.
"All of those folks have got to tell the truth about what they observed, what they know, otherwise they are in danger of perjuring themselves.
"It's probably part of a strategy that we're seeing here.
"It's not just about the Manaforts of the world," Bernstein said, referring to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who reportedly is a focus of the investigation.
"It's about those who have been very close to Donald Trump, in his entourage for many years."
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