President Donald Trump was questioning at least two witnesses that were previously interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, seeking information about what their conversation with Mueller’s team was.
According to The New York Times, Trump reportedly told White House counsel Don McGahn he should issue a statement denying a previous Times report that said Mueller’s team had learned that the president once asked McGahn to fire Mueller.
Additionally, President Trump during a December meeting has asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview with Mueller’s team had gone and if the investigators had been “nice.”
The NY Times reported that Priebus told Trump that they were behaving professionally, however, Priebus and McGahn’s attorney William Burck declined to comment to the Times.
The special counsel’s team is investigating into Russia’s election interference and the alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. However, the probe is also examining if President Trump has tried to obstruct the investigation. Trump regularly is calling the investigation a “witch hunt” insisting that it was the Democrats that coordinated with the Russians during the election.
The Times reported in late January that Trump once sought to have McGahn fire Mueller, but ultimately backed away from that demand after McGahn threatened to quit.
A report from The Times also said that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned last month regarding domestic abuse allegations, said to McGahn that Trump wanted him to issue a public statement denying that he had ever asked him to fire Mueller.
Porter also told McGahn that Trump will fire the White House counsel if he did not deny the Times’s story. McGahn did not comply with Trump’s request, he even told the Times that the story was accurate confirming that Trump required of him to ensure that Mueller was removed from his post.
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