The White House on Tuesday stated that President Donald Trump believes he has the power and authority to fire special counsel Robert Mueller from leading the Russia probe.
“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Sanders stated that Trump thinks that Mueller has “gone too far,” especially after FBI agents executed a raid on the office of Trump’s personal attorney in part based on a referral from the special counsel’s office.
According to Reuters, the possibility of Trump firing Mueller has been dismissed by many legal experts who say that Trump does not have the authority to fire the special counsel directly.
Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations state that the only one who can fire Mueller is the department official in charge of the investigation — in this case, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Democrats in Congress were shocked by Sanders’s remarks.
“The DOJ regulations could not be more clear; the President does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Mueller,” said the spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. “Because of the Attorney General’s recusal, only Deputy AG Rosenstein could remove the special counsel, and it would have to be for good cause.”
Meanwhile, Sanders stated that the White House has researched whether Trump has the authority to fire Mueller without Rosenstein’s approval by seeking advice from “individuals in the legal community” and Justice Department officials.
“We’ve been advised that the President certainly has the power to make that decision,” she said.
However, Sanders’s statement marks a shift in tone for the White House, which has said repeatedly for months that Trump has not discussed firing Mueller.
“There are no conversations or discussions about removing Mr. Mueller,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said last month.
The new development around the special counsel comes after the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, the President’s longtime lawyer and “fixer.”
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