In August of last year, shortly after FBI agents raided the home of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, the president was asked in a news conference whether he had considered firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
“I haven’t given it any thought,” Trump said. “Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody.”
A report from the New York Times published Thursday says otherwise: Trump not only considered ousting Mueller, he actually tried to do it.
The Times reported that Trump in June ordered Mueller fired after seeing news reports that the special counsel was investigating him for potential obstruction of justice, and backed off only after White House Counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign in protest. The Washington Post later confirmed the account, and Fox News reported high-level White House staff believed Trump was about to fire Mueller and talked him out of it.
Reuters reports that Trump pushed back against the report the next day, without addressing the specific allegation, as he arrived Friday at the site of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Fake news, folks. Fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories,” Trump told reporters.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday night. Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer working on the response to the Russia probe, declined comment Thursday night.
Trump argued at the time that Mueller could not be fair because of a dispute over golf club fees that he said Mueller owed at a Trump golf club in Sterling, Virginia. The president also believed Mueller had a conflict of interest because he worked for the same law firm that was representing Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.
Be the first to comment