President Trump on Saturday denied asking former White House Counsel Don McGahn to begin the process of firing Robert Mueller, contradicting the lawyer’s testimony to the special counsel.
‘I was NOT going to fire Bob Mueller, and did not fire Bob Mueller,’ the president tweeted on Saturday.
‘In fact, he was allowed to finish his Report with unprecedented help from the Trump Administration.
‘Actually, lawyer Don McGahn had a much better chance of being fired than Mueller. Never a big fan!’
President Trump (left) on Saturday hit out at former White House Counsel Don McGahn (right) while denying that he ordered McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller
‘I was NOT going to fire Bob Mueller, and did not fire Bob Mueller,’ the president tweeted on Saturday. ‘In fact, he was allowed to finish his Report with unprecedented help from the Trump Administration'
Mueller concluded a two-year investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. The report did not recommend criminal charges against Trump for conspiring with Russia.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump tweeted a denial that he instructed McGahn to fire Mueller.
On April 25, the president tweeted: '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.'
According to the Mueller report, McGahn says Trump told him 'Mueller has to go' and dispatched him to deliver the message to the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein.
McGahn told Mueller's investigators that he believed that Trump was ordering him to fire the special counsel and disobeyed his orders.
'McGahn recalled that the President was more direct, saying something like, ' "Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel."
'McGahn recalled the President telling him "Mueller has to go" and "Call me back when you do it."'
Mueller writes that 'McGahn understood the President to be saying that the Special Counsel had to be removed by Rosenstein. To end the conversation with the President, McGahn left the President with the impression that McGahn would call Rosenstein. McGahn recalled that he had already said no to the President's request and he was worn down, so he just wanted to get off the phone.'
The special counsel said that 'McGahn recalled feeling trapped because he did not plan to follow the President's directive but did not know what he would say the next time the President called.'
This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump tweeted a denial that he instructed McGahn to fire Mueller
Trump was suddenly anxious to get his side of the story out, after refusing to respond to the special counsel's questions about the matter, now that Democrats have subpoenaed McGahn
McGahn contemplated resigning as a result, the report states. That he did not is a point of fact that has been used by Trump's personal attorney to undermine the testimony.
Trump on Saturday was likely reacting to news reports from Friday night which indicated that the White House asked McGahn to publicly declare that the president never obstructed justice.
McGahn refused to do so.
After the release of the Mueller report last month, Attorney General William Barr said he and Rosenstein came to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to charge the president with obstruction of justice.
In his report, Mueller declined to reach a conclusion as to whether Trump's alleged attempts to impede his investigation constituted obstruction of justice.
Barr told Congress that 'the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.'
Mueller's report found there was not enough evidence to charge the president with conspiring with Russia. The special counsel (seen right last Monday in Washington, DC) declined to reach a conclusion as to whether Trump obstructed justice
Attorney General William Barr (left) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (right) concluded there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice
But Democrats believe Barr and the Justice Department are politicizing Mueller's findings, which is why they want the special counsel and McGahn to testify before Congress.
McGahn twice declined to publicly state that he believed President Trump did not obstruct justice, according to The New York Times.
McGahn’s refusal to publicly back Trump reportedly angered the president, who has long considered the former White House counsel’s cooperation with Mueller as an act of disloyalty, according to the Times.
Trump reportedly asked his aides to reach out to McGahn’s lawyer, William Burck, before the Mueller report was released publicly on April 18.
The White House obtained a copy before the Justice Department released it to the public.
White House lawyers noticed that the report did not mention the fact that McGahn told investigators that he did not believe the president obstructed
