NYT: Trump Ordered Mueller Fired

News  |  Jan 26, 2018

The New York Times reveals President Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller last June, "but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive."

McGahn reportedly told fellow senior White House officials that firing Mueller would have a "catastrophic" impact, and President Trump would not do the firing himself. 

NYT:

The 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 justice.

Amid 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.

First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.

The New York Times also says Trump considered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein oversees the Mueller investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last March. 

Full story: Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit (NYT)