Trump Pushed a PM to Help Mueller Probe

In May, Attorney General William Barr asked a US attorney to run an inquiry into the roots of the Russia election interference investigation. Sometime later, NBC reports, Barr decided other countries might be able to help, and he suggested that President Trump call Australia, US officials say. So the president asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help Barr's effort to counter Robert Mueller's findings, per the New York Times. The White House has allowed only a few aides access to the call's transcript—as it did with Trump's call to Ukraine's president in July. That's the call that has lead to an impeachment inquiry in the House.

One administration official said the call to Australia was routine case of "asking his law enforcement to work with ours." Also on Monday, a Justice Department spokeswoman said the inquiry into the Mueller probe, lead by John Durham, is collecting information from "a number of foreign countries," per USA Today. Trump has reached out to other countries to put their officials in touch with Barr and Durham, the spokeswoman said. Italy was one of those countries, and that's connected to Barr's trip there last week, per ABC. It's appropriate for Barr and Trump to ask other countries' help with the investigation, Justice Department officials told CNN. (Barr had said the inquiry would "investigate the investigators.")