Mueller accused of obtaining Trump transition emails improperly

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. lawyer for President Donald Trump's transition team on Saturday accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller of improperly obtaining tens of thousands of Trump transition emails and called it "unlawful conduct" during an investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in last year's presidential election.

Kory Langhofer, counsel to Trump for America (TFA), said in a letter to several congressional panels that Mueller's team obtained these emails from the General Services Administration (GSA), the government agency that hosted the transition email system.

In the seven-page letter, he accused Mueller's team of "unlawfully producing TFA's private materials, including privileged communications, to the Special Counsel's Office," according to a TheHill news daily report.

The lawyer urged the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee "to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies, particularly in the context of sensitive investigations intersecting with political motives."

Mueller's probe into the alleged Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections entered a new phase earlier this month when former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. Enditem