Trump escalates attack on Mueller
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump kept up his attack on the escalating Russia investigation, insisting in a new tweet Monday that it was “a total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!”
The comment came a day after a top White House lawyer tried to calm speculation that the president was considering firing the special counsel leading the probe.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb offered a statement late Sunday after top congressional Republicans warned of repercussions if Trump fired special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia and Russian meddling in the presidential election.
In a series of weekend tweets, Trump jabbed directly at Mueller by name for the first time. The president challenged the investigation’s existence and suggested political bias on the part of Mueller’s investigators. Trump has long been frustrated by the lengthy and intensifying probe, and insists his campaign did not collude with Russia to influence the election in his favor.
“The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,” he said in a late Saturday tweet.
Likely contributing to Trump’s sense of frustration, The New York Times reported last week that Mueller had subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Russiarelated documents. Trump had said Mueller would cross a red line with such a step.
“Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?” he tweeted Sunday.
Some of Mueller’s investigators indeed have contributed to Democratic political candidates, but Justice Department policy and
federal service law bar discrimination in the hiring of career positions on the basis of political affiliation. Mueller is a Republican.
The tweets revived talk that Trump may, in an attempt to end the investigation, move to have Mueller fired. Cobb sought to tamp down the speculation.
“In response to media speculation and related questions being posed to the Administration, the White House yet again confirms that the President is not considering or discussing the firing of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,” he said.
Trump on Monday tweeted: “A total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!”
Earlier Sunday, members of Congress, including some
top Republicans, warned Trump to not even think about terminating Mueller.
“If he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the HouseOversight and Government Reform panel, warned Trump that a Mueller firing would be a distraction from the president’s agenda.
“Let it play out its course,” Gowdy said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should want the investigation to be as fulsome and thorough as possible.
House Speaker Paul Ryan
said through a spokeswoman that “Mr. Mueller and his team should be able to do their job.”
AndSen. John McCain, RAriz., tweeted that it is “critical” Mueller be allowed to complete a thorough investigation “unimpeded.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for passage of stalled bipartisan bills designed to protect Mueller. He said Trump “is engaged in desperate and reckless conduct to intimidate his law enforcement agencies of this country and to try and stop the special counsel. That is unacceptable in a democracy.”
Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, who can only
be dismissed for cause. Any dismissal would have to be carried out by Rod Rosenstein, the Trump-appointed deputy attorney general who has publicly expressed support for Mueller.
Trump has fumed to confidants that the Mueller probe is “going to choke the life out of” his presidency if allowed to continue unabated indefinitely, according to an outside adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with the president.
Trump has long believed that the entrenched bureaucracy, particularly at the Justice Department and FBI, is out to thwart him. He fumed
to one confidant after seeing a promotion for a forthcoming book by James Comey, the FBI director he fired last year, believing Comey will seek to enrich himself by besmirching Trump’s reputation. Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” topped Amazon.com’s best-seller list on Sunday.
The president also has long been torn over how to approach the probe. His legal team, namely Cobb, has counseled Trump to cooperate with Mueller. But some former campaign advisers have urged Trump to be combative, warning that the investigation poses an existential threat to his presidency.