Mueller deputy Aaron Zebley looks back on the investigation of Trump's ties to Russia and explains why his team didn't indict the president in 2017. Zebley is the co-author of Interference. David Bianculli reviews WandaVision spin-off, Agatha All Along on Disney+. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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This is fresh air.
I'm Terry Gross.
As we near the presidential election, a new book answers a lot of questions about the Mueller investigation.
Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed by acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein to investigate any links or coordination between the russian government and people associated with the 2016 Trump campaign, as well as other related matters, including possible obstruction of justice, witness tampering or destruction of evidence.
The book takes us behind the scenes of the investigation.
It answers questions such as why the special counsels office didnt subpoena President Trump, why no criminal charges against Trump were recommended, action inside the special counsels office when then Attorney general William Barr released his own inaccurate summary of the investigation.
That summary misled Americans about what the report's conclusions really were and enabled Trump and the White House to incorrectly claim the report found no obstruction and no collusion.
The new book, the Inside Story of Trump, Russia and the Mueller Investigation, is written by three lead members of Muellers team, including my guest Aaron Zebley.
He was Mueller's deputy during the investigation and was Mueller's chief of staff when Mueller was the FBI director.
Zebly oversaw the editing of the Mueller report.
Erin Zebley, welcome to FReSh Air.
Can you describe your role in the investigation as Mueller's deputy?
I would say I was more or less the chief operating officer.
I oversaw all the investigations and all the prosecutions.
We had team leaders for each of our investigative teams, but I was overseeing all of, as I said, as the chief operating officer, more or less.
There were a lot of criticisms for not having subpoenaed Trump.
You say the story of the back and forth with the Justice Department over the subpoena has never been told until this book.