Wife of new Mueller appointee steps aside from Trump lawsuits

A federal judge in Manhattan who is married to the newest member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team has stepped aside from a pair of lawsuits involving President Trump’s business dealings with foreign governments.

Mueller is probing any coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia as part of a broader review of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election. A spokesperson for Mueller’s office on Wednesday confirmed that former Justice Department prosecutor Greg Andres has joined the team.

Andres is married to U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams, an appointee of President Obama who last month reportedly recused herself from two emoluments lawsuits involving the president — one filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., and one brought by White Plains, N.Y., attorney William Weinstein.

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Court filings show that both cases were reassigned to another judge last month. No reason was given.

The addition of Andres brings the total number of lawyers working on the Mueller investigation to 16. A former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, Andres headed the criminal division in that office and for two years served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department’s main headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Trump White House is reportedly probing Mueller’s team for conflicts of interest — including looking at investigators’ past donations to Democratic political candidates and Mueller’s relationship with former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May and who was previously tasked with leading the Russia probe.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Trump said Mueller has “many other conflicts,” although he did not specify any.

Trump left open the possibility that he could eventually fire Mueller, warning that Mueller would be crossing a line if he made any attempt to delve into the Trump family’s finances.