Friday, 26 January 2018, WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Trump last June ordered White House counsel Donald F. McGhan, Jr. to have the Department of Justice dismiss Robert S. Mueller III the special counsel overseeing the Trump-Russia investigation. This followed press reports that Mueller was then also looking into obstruction of justice charges as well after which Trump apparently convinced himself that Mueller had fatal conflicts of interest on at least three counts. During this period Mr. Trump and his initial outside counsel led by one of Trump's longtime New York lawyers Mark Kasowitz were being more adversarial concerning Mr. Mueller with Trump even declaring that Trump's personal finances would be a "red line" that the special counsel could not cross.
According to four New York Times sources with first-hand knowledge Trump reached the point last June 2017 that he ordered White House counsel McGhan to contact the Department of Justice to dismiss Mueller. Mr. McGhan reportedly refused to do so on the grounds that to do so would significantly raise the specter of White House obstruction of justice after James Comey's earlier firing and other White House efforts to enlist others to shut down the Trump-Russia investigation. Mr. McGhan stated that to fire Mueller would be "catastrophic" to the Trump presidency. Although he said he would quit rather than carry out Trump's order McGhan who had worked with Trump for some time including back throughout his presidential campaign correctly predicted that Mr. Trump would back off from his order. McGhan reportedly himself is also under scrutiny by Mueller.
During this period Mr. Trump considered other possible scenarios to shut down Mueller including having Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who had overseen Mueller from the start of the Trump-Russia special counsel probe removed so that DOJ's no. 3 official Rachel Brand could take his place and presumably be more inclined to act on Trump's wish that Mueller be removed as special counsel. Mr. Trump's public comments during this time were misleading at times as Trump repeatedly maintained that he was not giving the matter of removing Mueller serious consideration even when he was wavering on doing so. Special counsel Mueller reportedly in the past few months has became aware of what is now Trump's first known effort to shut Mueller down. Readers interested in more detailed information covering a longer time period in more depth can go to the links below.
"[W]e are very possibly seeing the end of the Trump presidency as a result of those revelations, and those are not words I use lightly" - Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general and writer of DOJ special counsel regulations:
o http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/mueller-still-vulnerable-to-trump-republican-smears-sabotage-1147227203926?playlist=associated Video 07:42 - 13:56
o https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html With video 00:23
o https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-moved-to-fire-mueller-in-june-bringing-white-house-counsel-to-the-brink-of-leaving/2018/01/25/9184a49e-0238-11e8-bb03-722769454f82_story.html
Copytight 2018 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
Copytight 2018 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
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