USA TODAY International Edition
War of words escalates over Russia
Lawmakers warn firing Mueller would not stand
WASHINGTON – As President Trump renewed his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI officials, lawmakers warned Sunday that any move to dismiss Mueller would trigger a legal and political crisis over the Russia investigation.
Trump and aides are calling on Mueller to end his investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump also is attacking the credibility of two witnesses who are crucial to Mueller’s obstruction-of-justice investigation of the president: former FBI director James Comey and newly fired deputy director Andrew McCabe.
“Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?” Trump said in a series of morning tweets. “Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!”
Some lawmakers said Trump’s claims may be laying the groundwork for a dismissal of Mueller, and they used the Sunday interview shows to warn the president against such a course.
“The president is floating trial balloons about derailing the Mueller investigation,” said Charles Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. He added that Republicans have an obligation to “make it clear that firing Mueller is a red line for our democracy that cannot be crossed.”
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s This Week that Congress probably would respond Mueller’s removal with legislation reinstating the special counsel. “This would undoubtedly result in a constitutional crisis,” he said.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a House Intelligence Committee member who generally supports Trump, urged the president and his team to give Mueller “the time, the independence and the resources” needed to complete the job.
“Let it play out its course,” Gowdy told Fox News Sunday.
Other GOP lawmakers said they don’t expect Trump to make such a move, noting that the special counsel investigation has produced indictments and appears on track to the facts on Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
“They want him to be able to finish the investigation,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., also speaking on ABC’s This Week. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Trump ally, told the same program that firing Mueller “would be inappropriate.”
Trump aides said they do not want Mueller to be fired but do believe it is time for the special counsel to end a Russia investigation.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who dismissed McCabe at 10 p.m. ET Friday, has recused himself from the Russia investigation. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller and presumably would have the power to remove him.
In calling on Rosenstein to shut down the investigation, Trump attorney John Dowd cited the dismissal of McCabe as well as a much-disputed dossier that makes unproven claims about Trump campaign cooperation with Russians who used hacks and phony news reports to spread negative attacks on 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Dowd called on Rosenstein to “bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier.” Last week, Rosenstein told USA TODAY that there was no reason to dismiss Mueller: “The special counsel is not an unguided missile . ... I don’t believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel.”
The rhetorical escalation came the weekend Sessions fired McCabe just two days before the FBI official was set to retire and be in a position to collect full benefits.
Sessions said that McCabe made “an unauthorized disclosure to the news media” in connection with the email investigation of Clinton and that he “lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions” in discussing the incident during a Justice Department review.
McCabe responded in a statement late Friday that Trump had him removed as part of an effort to undermine federal law enforcement in general and the Russia investigation in particular.
McCabe also said he has been a witness to Trump’s decision to fire Comey as FBI director last year, an event central to the obstruction-of-justice investigation.
“It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day,” McCabe said. “Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.”
On Twitter early Saturday, Trump hailed McCabe’s dismissal as a great day for the FBI. But Comey defended his former deputy and sent a warning to the president.
“Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon,” Comey tweeted. “And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.”
Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, is set to be published in mid-April.
In his Sunday tweets, Trump challenged news reports that McCabe had taken notes during the time of Comey’s firing. Trump tweeted that he “spent very little time” with McCabe, and “he never took notes when he was with me.”
He added: “I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?”
In his statement, McCabe said he was being “singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey.”
In another tweet, Trump cited reports that McCabe said his interactions with the media were approved by superiors, but Comey testified to Congress that there were no news leaks during the Clinton investigation.
“The president is floating trial balloons about derailing the Mueller investigation.”
Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.