Trump blasts court’s travel ruling
President’s ally says he was ‘considering’ terminating Russia probe special counsel Robert Mueller
WASHINGTON: A friend of President Donald Trump added a new twist to the Russia link controversy by suggesting he might be considering dismissing the special counsel investigating it.
The White House pushed back, but only after the claim had been parsed and dissed with warnings about how it would only make things worse for Trump, who chose to ignore it in a series of tweets on Tuesday, focussed on a fresh setback to his travel ban.
“Well, as predicted, the 9th Circuit did it again - Ruled against the TRAVEL BAN at such a dangerous time in the history of our country,” Trump tweeted, ending it with, “S.C.”, a reference to the Supreme Court, which his administration intends to move.
The Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction on Trump’s revised travel ban temporarily preventing citizens from Muslim-majority nations Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia.
The revised ban has been stayed by two appellate courts and the administration has sought a review by the Supreme Court, and this injunction is headed for it as well.
Trump also had other issues on his mind on Tuesday as reflected in his tweets, the Russia probe among them, as he sought to deflect attention towards Hillary Clinton and the investigation into her use of a private email server that came up during fired FBI director James Comey’s testimony last week.
He also railed against “fake news”, saying it’s at an “all-time high”, but he wasn’t explicit enough. Was it about reports suggesting he was planning to fire the special counsel, Robert Mueller, a highly respected former FBI director, who has been tasked to take over FBI’s Russia probe?
Christopher Moody, CEO of conservative news outlet Newsmax Media and a friend of Trump who had spoken for him before and bluntly, said in an interview to PBS that the president was “considering, perhaps, terminating the special counsel” Mueller. “I think he’s weighing that option.”
The White House appeared blindsided by it, but took hours to address it, triggering speculation it was probably a plan indeed.