Trump ordered Special Counsel Mueller’s firing, then backed off – NYT
NEW YORK, (MILLAT ONLINE):US President Donald Trump gave the order to fire the man leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 American election, but he backed down after the top White House counsel told him the firing would decimate public confidence in the presidency, The New York Times reported Friday.
The revelation is the first hint that Trump, hounded by special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Russian probe, took steps to have Mueller removed. Such a firing would have set the investigation back months, and possibly could have silenced it altogether.
White House lawyers and press officials did not immediately respond to media requests for comments.
Meanwhile, Democrats reacted quickly. U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner, a Democrat who is Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called for a bipartisan rebuke of the president’s actions.
“I have said it before, and I am saying it again: Firing the Special Counsel is a red line that the President cannot cross,” Warner said in a statement. “Any attempt to remove the Special Counsel, pardon key witnesses, or otherwise interfere in the investigation, would be a gross abuse of power, and all members of Congress, from both parties, have a responsibility to our Constitution and to our country to make that clear immediately.”
Trump gave the order for the firing in June, the Times reported. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice, the Times reported, citing unnamed officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mueller learned of the incident in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in an inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice, the Times reported.
Amid media reports that Mueller was looking into a possible obstruction case, Trump argued that the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the probe, two of the people said, according to the Times report.
First, Trump said that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, had led Mueller to resign his membership, the newspaper reported.
The president also said Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for a law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump also said Mueller had been interviewed to return as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the day before he was appointed special counsel in May, the Times reported, citing the two people.
White House Counsel Donald McGahn said he would quit rather than follow through on the order to fire Mueller, the Times reported, citing the people.
McGahn disagreed with the president’s case for dismissing Mueller and told senior White House officials that firing him would have a catastrophic effect on Trump’s presidency and raise questions about whether the White House was trying to obstruct the Russia probe, according to the people cited by the Times.
McGahn also told White House officials that Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own, and the president then backed off his demand, according to the people, who the Times said spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.
Mueller was appointed special counsel in May by the Justice Department after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russia investigation. Russia has denied any meddling and Trump has denied any collusion.
Comey’s firing is central to whether Trump may have committed obstruction of justice.
Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Mueller, and according to sources with knowledge of the investigation, Trump’s attorneys have been talking to Mueller’s team about an interview.