Trump’s allies urge him to go on the attack against Mueller
WASHINGTON — Even as President Donald Trump’s advisers encourage him to accept the realities of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, longtime friends and allies are pushing Trump to fight back, citing concerns that his lawyers are naive to the existential threat facing the president.
Trump supporters and associates inside and outside the White House see the conciliatory path as risky to the maverick president’s tenure. Instead, they want the street-fighting tweeter to criticize Mueller with abandon.
The struggle between supporters of the legal team’s steady, cooperative approach, and the band of Trump loyalists who yearn for a fight, comes as the Mueller probe begins lapping at the door of the Oval Office. Mueller, who is investigating the firing of former FBI director James Comey and other key actions of the Trump administration, has signaled that his team intends to interview multiple current and former White House officials in the coming weeks and has requested large batches of documents from the executive branch.
In private, Trump remains relatively calm for now, but that doesn’t mean he thinks the Russia probe is legitimate, and he could return to fighting Mueller at any moment, according to a group of about 15 Trump allies, advisers and former campaign aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations with the White House.
The president still periodically flashes his anger, blasting the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation in a tweet last Thursday and urging them to investigate journalists instead of his campaign and family. And in a private dinner with social conservatives last month, Trump expressed frustration over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal, which helped pave the road to Mueller’s appointment.
“The president respects what Bob Mueller is doing and has fully cooperated and asked everyone around him to fully cooperate with Bob,” said Trump’s attorney, John Dowd.
Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer responsible for responding to Mueller’s information requests, said it’s important to Trump “and the country to get this behind us.”
“The White House is working diligently in full cooperation with the special counsel to complete the responses to all pending requests, and the president’s frustration does not extend to the special counsel personally in any way,” he added.
But the question of cooperation is far from settled for Trump’s allies, many of whom are pressing him to fight Mueller more aggressively.
That tension was apparent at a private dinner of close to a dozen conservative leaders with Trump and his top aides Sept. 25, though accounts of the gathering vary.
In one version, one guest peppered Trump with questions about what he was going to do about the special counsel’s investigation. While Trump was dismissive, the president said he was keeping his head low and such questions should be posed to Sessions himself, according to two people who were present.
But a third person in the room said that Trump was visibly angry with Sessions and made a flippant remark about the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself.