Trump denies report that he ordered Russia probe special prosecutor fired
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is reported to have ordered the firing last June of the special counsel investigating Russian interference in US election backed down only after a top White House lawyer threatened to resign in protest.
Trump’s decision was triggered by reports that Robert Mueller was also investigating obstruction of justice by the president who had fired then FBI director James Comey, who later said he had been asked to go easy on the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The New York Times, which first reported the development, said Trump had made his case against Mueller on three grounds of conflict of interest — a membership dispute between Mueller and a golf course owned by Trump, a stint done by the counsel with a law firm that had once represented Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and that Mueller, a former FBI director, had interviewed with the president to return to his old job.
The president was forced to change his mind, according to the report, only after White House counsel Donald F Mcgahan II threatened to resign.
He reportedly told other officials that the firing would be catastrophic for the Trump presidency. Asked about the report in Davos, Switzerland Trump said, “Fake news. Fake news. Typical New York Times. Fake stories.”
NEW IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS UNVEILED
The White House unveiled a new proposal on Thursday that offers a path to citizenship to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, in exchange for funding for some of the president’s hardline steps such as a border wall and end to family-based immigration.
The plan offers citizenship to more than twice the number that has been spoke off in ongoing negotiations — around 690,000, with an estimated 8,000 from India — and is expected to meet a key demand of Democrats who had blocked a short-term funding bill last week forcing a three-day partial shut down of the federal government.