WASHINGTON: Official Washington was abuzz this weekend over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia’s attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump’s favour.

There was no indication, in reporting by CNN that other media later confirmed, of who might be charged or what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller.

But Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets on Sunday, again denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt” and repeated his denials of any collusion with Russia.

Mueller’s team has remained mum about reports that a first arrest could be made as early as Monday. He is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his large team of prosecutors should uncover.

But Chris Christie, a Republican governor close to Trump, said on ABC that “the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation. And no one has told him that he is.”

Typically, such an inquiry would first target lower-level people while building a case against those higher up.

Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, demurred when asked whether Trump was under investigation. “I can’t answer that one way or the other,” he told ABC.

But he mentioned two possible targets on whom much speculation has focused: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, both of them once involved in undeclared lobbying for foreign interests.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2017