The US Department of Justice has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the probe into possible links between Russia and President Donald Trump’s election campaign team.
His appointment came about a week after FBI chief James Comey, who was investigating Moscow’s alleged influence in last year’s election, was sacked.
Four congressional committees will look into reports that Trump allegedly asked Comey to halt a probe into possible ties between his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, and Russian officials.
Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reports from Washington, DC.
The video item below is a piece of English language content from Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is a Qatari state-funded broadcaster based in Doha, Qatar, owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network.
Donald John Trump was the 45th President of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Trump was born and raised in Queens, a borough of New York City, and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School.
Michael Thomas Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 25th National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration until his resignation.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The United States is a country also known as the United States of America, USA, US or just America. There are fifty states in the union, which is a federal republic ruled by a representative democracy. Nearly ten million square kilometres are inhabited by over 300 million people. The majority of Americans speak English.
