Mueller unlawfully obtained emails: Trump's transition lawyer

Washington D.C. [United States]: A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team has accused special counsel Robert Mueller of unlawfully obtaining tens of thousands of emails as part of its Russia probe.

The lawyer, Kory Langhofer wrote to House and Senate committees on Saturday.

Transition team's attorney, in the seven-page letter, alleges "unlawful conduct" by the career staff at the General Services Administration (GSA) in handing over transition documents to the special counsel's office, reported Fox News.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is a government agency which was used for email hosting in the period between Donald Trump's election and his inauguration in 2017.

The GSA is reported to have supplied these records to Mueller's investigation team in the summer.

Langhofer wrote in the letter that the Special Counsel's Office "was actively using those materials without any notice" to transition officials.

"The materials produced by the GSA to the Special Counsel's Office therefore included materials protected by the attorney-client privilege, the deliberative process privilege, and the presidential communications privilege," the letter maintains.

The emails in question involve 13 transition officials, including four senior ones, according to the letter.

Responding to the accusations on Sunday, a spokesman for Mueller Peter Carr told Fox News, "When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process.