President Donald Trump on Sunday took out his frustrations over the intensifying Russia investigation by lashing out at special counsel Robert Mueller, signaling a possible shift away from a strategy of cooperating with a probe he believes is biased against him.<\/p>\n
In a series of weekend tweets naming Mueller for the first time, Trump criticized the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and raised fresh concerns about the objectivity and political leanings of the members of Mueller\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Trump also challenged the honesty of Andrew McCabe, the newly fired FBI deputy director, and James Comey, the bureau\u2019s former director whom Trump fired last year over the Russia probe.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s aggressive stance followed a call Saturday by his personal lawyer for Rod Rosenstein, whom Trump appointed as deputy attorney general and who now oversees Mueller\u2019s inquiry, to \u201cbring an end\u201d to that investigation.<\/p>\n
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, which spent the past year conducting a parallel investigation, recently said they had drafted a report concluding no collusion or coordination between Trump\u2019s presidential campaign and Russia. Committee Democrats vehemently disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,\u201d Trump tweeted Saturday. \u201cIt was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!\u201d Trump was referring to a dossier of anti-Trump research funded by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
Likely adding to Trump\u2019s growing frustration, The New York Times reported last week that Mueller had subpoenaed the Trump Organization and requested Russia-related documents. Trump had said Mueller would cross a red line with such a step.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?\u201d Trump tweeted Sunday.<\/p>\n
Some of Mueller\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A deeply frustrated Trump has fumed to confidants that the Mueller probe is \u201cgoing to choke the life out of\u201d his presidency if allowed to continue unabated indefinitely, according to an outside adviser who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations with the president.<\/p>\n
Trump has long believed that the entrenched bureaucracy, particularly at the Justice Department and FBI, is out to thwart him, and has pointed to McCabe\u2019s wife\u2019s associations with Democrats, including longtime Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe, as an example. He also fumed to one confidant after seeing a promotion for Comey\u2019s forthcoming book, and believes the former FBI director will seek to enrich himself by besmirching Trump\u2019s reputation. Comey\u2019s book, \u201cA Higher Loyalty,\u201d topped Amazon.com\u2019s best-seller list on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The president has long been torn over how to approach the Mueller probe. Trump insists that his campaign did not collude with Russia, and his legal team, namely attorney Ty Cobb, has counseled the president to cooperate with Mueller. But some former campaign advisers have urged Trump to be combative, warning him that that the investigation poses an existential threat to his presidency.<\/p>\n
Cobb said late Sunday that Trump is not thinking about or talking about firing Mueller.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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,\u201d Cobb said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s attacks raised new concerns among members of Congress that he could be seeking to orchestrate Mueller\u2019s firing. Republican and Democratic lawmakers warned Trump to not even think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency,\u201d said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally.<\/p>\n
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for the passage of bipartisan bills designed to protect Mueller that have stalled in Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis president 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,\u201d Durbin said.<\/p>\n
Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, who can only be dismissed for cause. Any dismissal of Mueller would have to be carried out by Rosenstein, who has publicly expressed his support for Mueller.<\/p>\n
Aides and friends say they understand Trump\u2019s frustration with an investigation that hangs over his presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he says it\u2019s a political witch hunt, I think he\u2019s right,\u201d said Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the conservative news website Newsmax and a longtime Trump friend.<\/p>\n
Marc Short, Trump\u2019s congressional liaison, said the president\u2019s frustration is \u201cwell-warranted\u201d because \u201cthere has been no evidence whatsoever of collusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump may have felt emboldened after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday. \u201cA great day for Democracy,\u201d Trump tweeted afterward. Trump asserted without elaboration that McCabe, whose firing he had publicly called for, knew \u201call about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press later reported that McCabe kept personal memos detailing interactions with Trump that have been provided to Mueller\u2019s office and are similar to notes compiled by Comey. Trump sought to cast doubt on their veracity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me,\u201d Trump tweeted Sunday. \u201cI don\u2019t 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be unusual for a senior official to make notes soon after meeting with the president.<\/p>\n
Trump also claimed Comey lied under oath at a Senate hearing by saying he had never been an anonymous source. Comey, who is releasing a book next month, tweeted Saturday after McCabe\u2019s firing: \u201cMr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contents of McCabe\u2019s memos are unknown, but they could help substantiate McCabe\u2019s assertion that he was unfairly maligned by a White House he says had declared \u201cwar\u201d on the FBI and Mueller\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
Sessions said he dismissed McCabe on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials who said McCabe had not been candid with a watchdog office investigation. An upcoming inspector general\u2019s report is expected to conclude that McCabe had authorized the release of information to the media and was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it examined the bureau\u2019s handling of an investigation into Clinton\u2019s emails.<\/p>\n
McCabe has vigorously disputed the allegations and said his credibility had been attacked as \u201cpart of a larger effort not just to slander me personally\u201d but also the FBI and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Also over the weekend, Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, John Dowd, cited the \u201cbrilliant and courageous example\u201d by Sessions and the FBI\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility and said Rosenstein should \u201cbring an end\u201d to the Russia investigation \u201cmanufactured\u201d by Comey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump on Sunday took out his frustrations over the intensifying Russia investigation by lashing out at special counsel Robert Mueller, signaling a possible shift away from a strategy of cooperating with a probe he believes is biased against him. In a series of weekend tweets naming Mueller for the first time, Trump criticized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25293,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25291\/revisions\/25293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}