NY Times: Trump ordered Mueller fired in June 2017
BOOM! Mike Schmidt and Maggie Habermen have the scoop of scoops concerning what look like obstruction of justice on steroids:
President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directivThe West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justiceAmid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.
Uncle Dotard’s excuses are spelled out in the article. He gave the order to Don McGahn, who “refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead.”
There have been reports that Trump’s team was pressuring him to fire Mueller back in December, including a detailed article at Vox. Trump denied the rumor on December 15th.
For his part, Trump recently claimed “absolute power” to do as he sees fit with regard to the Department of Justice earlier this month.
That alone should give every American pause. It did not go over well even within his party.
The news caps developments that suggest Mueller is on the verge of making another big move in his investigation into allegations that officials of the Trump presidential campaign engaged in wrongdoing with agents of Russia, and other possible crimes that his probe has in turn uncovered.
