W*****B
发帖数: 4796 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: WCNMLGB (CCC), 信区: Military
标 题: 大事不好，床铺要开除穆勒！
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Jan 25 21:50:32 2018, 美东)
最后怂了。床铺要是开除穆勒，下面就要被弹劾了。
Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel
Threatened to Quit
WASHINGTON — 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
directive.
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.
After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House
counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to
dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be
identified discussing a continuing investigation.
Mr. McGahn disagreed with the president’s case and told senior White House
officials that firing Mr. Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Mr.
Trump’s presidency. Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr.
Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president
then backed off.
Ty Cobb, who manages the White House’s relationship with Mr. Mueller’s
office, said in a statement, “We decline to comment out of respect for the
Office of the Special Counsel and its process.”
Mr. McGahn, a longtime Republican campaign finance lawyer in Washington who
served on the Federal Election Commission, was the top lawyer on Mr. Trump’
s campaign. He has been involved in nearly every key decision Mr. Trump has
made — like the firing of the former F.B.I. director — that is being
scrutinized by Mr. Mueller.
Mr. McGahn was also concerned that firing the special counsel would incite
more questions about whether the White House was trying to obstruct the
Russia investigation.
Around the time Mr. Trump wanted to fire Mr. Mueller, the president’s legal
team, led then by his longtime personal lawyer in New York, Marc E.
Kasowitz, was taking an adversarial approach to the Russia investigation.
The president’s lawyers were digging into potential conflict-of-interest
issues for Mr. Mueller and his team, according to current and former White
House officials, and news media reports revealed that several of Mr. Mueller
’s prosecutors had donated to Democrats.
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Mr. Mueller could not legally have considered political affiliations when
making hiring decisions. But for Mr. Trump’s supporters, it reinforced the
idea that, although Mr. Mueller is a Republican, he had assembled a team of
Democrats to take down the president.
Another option that Mr. Trump considered in discussions with his advisers
was dismissing the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and elevating
the department’s No. 3 official, Rachel Brand, to oversee Mr. Mueller. Mr.
Rosenstein has overseen the investigation since March, when Attorney
General Jeff Sessions recused himself.
Mr. Trump has significantly ratcheted back his criticisms of Mr. Mueller
since he hired Mr. Cobb for his legal team in July. A veteran of several
high-profile Washington controversies, Mr. Cobb has known Mr. Mueller for
decades, dating to their early careers in the Justice Department.
He advised Mr. Trump that he had nothing to gain from combat with Mr.
Mueller, a highly respected former prosecutor and F.B.I. director who has
subpoena power as special counsel. Since Mr. Cobb’s arrival, the White
House has operated on the premise that the quickest way to clear the cloud
of suspicion was to cooperate with Mr. Mueller, not to fight him.
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has wavered for months about whether he wants to fire
Mr. Mueller, whose job security is an omnipresent concern among the
president’s legal team and close aides. The president’s lawyers, including
Mr. Cobb, have tried to keep Mr. Trump calm by assuring him for months,
amid new revelations about the inquiry, that it is close to ending.
Mr. Trump has long demonstrated a preoccupation with those who have overseen
the Russia investigation. In March, after Mr. McGahn failed to persuade
Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the inquiry, Mr.
Trump complained that he needed someone loyal to oversee the Justice
Department.
The former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said Mr. Trump asked him for
loyalty and encouraged him to drop an investigation into his former national
security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Comey said he sidestepped those
requests. He was soon fired.
In an interview with The New York Times in the Oval Office in July, the
president pointedly kept open the option of firing Mr. Mueller, saying that
the special counsel would be passing a red line if his investigation
expanded to look at Mr. Trump’s finances. Mr. Trump said he never would
have made Mr. Sessions the attorney general if he had known he would recuse
himself from the investigation.
Last month, as Republicans were increasing their attacks on the special
counsel, Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Times that he believed Mr.
Mueller was going to treat him fairly.
“No, it doesn’t bother me because I hope that he’s going to be fair,” Mr
. Trump said in response to a question about whether it bothered him that Mr
. Mueller had not yet ended his investigation. “I think that he’s going to
be fair.”
Mr. Trump added: “There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be
fair.”
RELATED COVERAGE
Trump Says He Is Willing to Speak Under Oath to Mueller Jan. 24, 2018
Sessions Is Questioned as Russia Inquiry Focuses on Obstruction Jan. 23,
2018
Trump Says Russia Inquiry Makes U.S. ‘Look Very Bad’ Dec. 28, 2017
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