We told you yesterday that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was raided by the FBI and in the wake of that, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a warning to the President, urging him to not fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
“If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don’t,” Schumer said in a statement fired off shortly after Trump’s comments.
“Special Counsel Mueller, a Republican, has uncovered a deep and detailed pattern of Russian interference in our elections that has led to indictments and guilty pleas,” Schumer said.
He continued, “It has also led to the Trump administration itself leveling sanctions against Russian individuals for meddling in our elections, proof that it’s not a so-called ‘witch-hunt.’”
“The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue,” he added.
While being “flanked” by Vice President Mike Pence as well as John Bolton, Trump continued to call out the actions of the FBI and their raid for the better part of 10 minutes.
“When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness,” Trump said.
“This is the most biased group of people,” Trump said of Mueller’s team. “These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I have ever seen. Democrats — all. Either Democrats or a couple of Republicans who worked for President Obama. They’re not looking at the other side — Hillary Clinton … all of the crimes that were committed, all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about from the Republican side and the independent side. They only keep looking at us. ”
I personally believe the raid is for nothing. It continues to feel like Mueller and his team are grasping at straws. What do you think?
As reported by USNews:
He [Trump] vented to allies that Mueller’s investigators were “going too far” and conducting “their witch hunt” to undermine his presidency, according to two people familiar with the president’s views but not allowed to discuss them publicly.
The harsh tone of Trump’s comments immediately drew warnings from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have sought to preserve Mueller’s independence.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he didn’t know the purpose of Mueller’s raid on Cohen, but added, “I just want to let Mr. Mueller do his job without any political interference.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York released a statement warning Trump against firing Mueller. “The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy and must be allowed to continue,” he said.
Under Justice Department regulations, Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, but could order Rosenstein or his successor to remove the special counsel. The regulations only allow Mueller’s removal for “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or for other good cause” including violation of Justice Department policies.