President Trump contradicted Robert Mueller’s report that he directed White House counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel, blaming it on reporting by the “Fake News Media.”
”As has been incorrectly reported by the Fake News Media, I never told then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller, even though I had the legal right to do so. If I wanted to fire Mueller, I didn’t need McGahn to do it, I could have done it myself,” Trump Thursday.
“Nevertheless, Mueller was NOT fired and was respectfully allowed to finish his work on what I, and many others, say was an illegal investigation (there was no crime), headed by a Trump hater who was highly conflicted, and a group of 18 VERY ANGRY Democrats,” . “DRAIN THE SWAMP!”
A redacted version of the report, released by Attorney General William Barr last Thursday, says Trump approached McGahn twice in June 2017 and told him to have Deput🐬y Attorney General Rod Rosenstein fire Mueller.
“You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod,” McGahn recalled Trump’s directive.
But McGahn said he feared that Trump would create a situation akin to the Watergate-era “Saturday Night Massacre” and refused to comply, saying Trump was asking him to do “crazy s–t.”
Rather than fire Mueller, McGa🏅hn optedಞ to resign and traveled to the White House to clean out his office.
Then✃-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House ad𝔍viser Steve Bannon talked him out of stepping down.
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed 𒆙McGahn to testify before the panel, but reports saꦛy the White House may try to block the move by asserting executive privilege.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the committee, said preventing McGahn’s appearance would constitute obstruction of justice by an “administration desperate to prevent the public from talking about the President’s behavior.”