Trump Reportedly Pressured Australian Prime Minister to Help Barr Probe Mueller Origins

The hits just keep coming for President Trump.

The New York Times reported on Monday afternoon that the president recently pushed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assist Attorney General William Barr with a Justice Department probe into the origins of the Mueller investigation, an issue the president and many of his allies are obsessed with.

This transcript of this call, much like the now-infamous July 25 conversation with the Ukranian president in which Trump pushed him to open investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 election, was restricted to a handful of officials. The White House has acknowledged that many of these calls have been held on a secret codeword-protected server.

According to the Times, Trump broached the subject with Morrison over the past few weeks, asking for help from the Australian government in the DOJ’s review of the Russia investigation. One of the Times’ sources said that Barr requested that Trump push Morrison on the subject.

The investigation into whether Russia interfered during the 2016 election and if the Trump campaign cooperated with the Russians began in earnest after an Australian diplomat informed the FBI that the Russian government had hinted to Trump campaign operatives about the possibility of releasing dirt on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The latest news from the Times, amid a House impeachment inquiry over Trump’s Ukraine call and a whistleblower complaint, comes on the heels of more eyebrow-raising revelations, such as the Wall Street Journal reporting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the Ukraine call. The House also subpoenaed Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and several of his business associates/clients for records and documents related to the Ukraine mess.