mueller looking into trump finances fake bews

Two White House officials tell The Daily Beast that retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who took over for ousted chief of staff Reince Priebus, would strenuously oppose the president if he tried to remove Mueller. Republicans and Democrats have warned Trump in recent weeks that it would be politically toxic if moves to remove the special counsel.Įven internally, Trump could face renewed pushback against any move on Mueller from his newly minted chief of staff. Senators could return to Washington over the recess to block him from firing Mueller, who is extremely popular on Capitol Hill, Coons said. The president “would be taking a risk if he assumed that he could act because the Senate was fully in recess,” Coons told reporters on Thursday. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and a sponsor of one those bills, raised the possibility that Trump might try to do so while the Senate is on its August recess. Two bipartisan Senate bills are already making their way through that chamber that would remove the president’s authority to oust the special counsel. The move would set off a political firestorm, and likely draw criticism from both sides of the political aisle. Trump can’t technically fire Mueller, but he can direct deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to do so. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t cleared to discuss these sensitive matters. “Just keep him off the Twitter and on the teleprompter,” the White House official said. Mueller and his team are now firmly on the wrong side of that “red line,” and Trump staffers are worried at the prospect that he could follow through on his threat-or at the very least dig the White House deeper into a legal and public relations hole with ill-considered tweets or public statements that have become his hallmark. “Any inquiry from the special counsel that goes beyond the mandate specified in the appointment we would object to,” he said. Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s outside legal team, reiterated that position to CNN on Thursday. The official alluded to Trump’s interview with the New York Times last month, in which he agreed that Mueller would cross a “red line” by expanding his investigation from alleged Russian election meddling into the Trump family’s finances. “Whether he does something that’s gonna make everything else even more difficult.” “The worry is what the president does now,” the official said. The Daily Beast independently confirmed that development on Thursday, a development that signals the investigation is picking up steam. “Outside counsel is handling all that so legal developments aren’t really front and center,” one senior Trump official told The Daily Beast of the expanded scope of the investigation, and news that Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington. Inside the White House, it’s not just the potential legal jeopardy that has officials concerned it’s how President Trump might react to news that his and his family’s finances are under investigation-and the political and legal consequences that could ensue from a Trump backlash against the news. Left unsaid was what, if anything, he plans to do about it.

Mueller looking into trump finances fake bews