The New York Times is reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller last June, but eventually backed down.
The president eventually backed down after White House counsel threatened to quit rather than carry out the order, according to the newspaper.
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The report states that Trump began to cite numerous conflicts of interest that would have precluded Mueller from overseeing the investigation.
The first of these involved a disagreement over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling that prompted the former FBI director to forfeit his membership.
In addition, two people told the Times that the president also claimed Mueller wouldn’t be impartial because he previously worked for the law firm that represented Jared Kushner.
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Lastly, the president claimed that Mueller had interviewed to return to the role of FBI Director the day before he was appointed as special counsel last May.
Mueller was appointed to investigate potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government. Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election eventually expanded to include whether the president himself and his inner circle had obstructed justice.
The report states that upon receiving the order from Trump to dismiss Mueller, White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II said he would quit before asking the Justice Department to follow these instructions.
McGahn apparently told senior staffers that firing Mueller would have a “catastrophic” effect on the Trump presidency, and also said that Trump would not fire Mueller on his own.
The two staffers spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity.
The White House has not officially responded to the allegations, but the Times reached out to Trump’s lawyer responsible for managing the White House’s relationship with Mueller’s office, and received the following.
“We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process,” Ty Cobb, the president’s lawyer who manages the White House’s relationship with Mr. Mueller’s office, said in a statement.
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