"A search warrant in a case like this is highly unusual"

Ken Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel frequently criticized for alleged overreach by then-President Bill Clinton, never utilized search warrants, two members of the team told NPR. Neither did the special counsel investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity in the George W. Bush administration, said William Jeffress, a Washington attorney who represented White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby in that probe.

“A search warrant in a case like this is highly unusual,” Jeffress said.

Lawyers said the special counsel may have been motivated to use a search warrant over concerns that evidence might be concealed or destroyed, which sometimes happens in terrorism and drug trafficking cases. Or, they said, Mueller may have been moving quickly amid a series of existential threats. In recent weeks, President Trump has blasted the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” and flirted with the idea of firing Justice Department leaders as a roundabout way to get rid of Mueller himself.