Last month when former FBI Director under the Bush and Obama administration was named as special prosecutor to lead a criminal investigation into the Trump administration, the President's surrogate, Newt Gingrich, gave some praise to Mueller's credibility and his reputation. Now, it's been reported that Gingrich is leading the charge to undermine Mueller's investigation.
Newt Gingrich wants investigation against Trump scrapped
Newt Gingrich called for the Justice Department to scrap the investigation in a video he posted on Facebook right after Comey's testimony.
While Gingrich is not recognized as one of Trump's aides in the White House, Gingrich has shown himself to be quite influential in the Trump camp through the media as he is sought out by conservative media to comment on Washington politics.
Gingrich has been asked about this by George Stephanopoulos in an interview for ABC News where he said that he changed his mind about Mueller after Comey made what he thought were very arrogant statements. He also said that the investigation was not neutral and that the people Mueller was bringing into his team were all "bad people". Gingrich was not the only one to say this, former White House chief strategist for the Bush administration Karl Rove holds the same views on Mueller.
Considering firing Robert Mueller
Chris Ruddy who is the CEO of the conservative NewsMax and a close friend to Trump was seen leaving the White House on Monday before he made an appearance on PBS Newshour. In his segment with the program, Ruddy said that Trump was thinking about firing the special prosecutor but Ruddy also said he thought it would be a bad idea.
Here is that interview.
He also gave justification for the potential firing saying that Comey's hearing showed that there was no reason for there to be a special prosecutor. Trump's personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz made a statement right after the hearing to say that the President felt vindicated that there was no investigation on him personally.
Blasting News also reported details of how the administration will be using Kasowitz to fend off Mueller from accessing information he might need for his criminal probe.
Response to potential firing
It's been reported that the response to Trump's considerations was what the President expected and according to White House officials, he was satisfied. In a recent hearing by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, Rod Rosenstein said that the President could not fire Robert Mueller and that the responsibility would go to him. If he found any reason to get rid of him then he would as long as he was still the Deputy Attorney General. Of course, if this is true, President Trump could fire Rosenstein.
If President fired Bob Mueller, Congress would immediately re-establish independent counsel and appoint Bob Mueller. Don't waste our time.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 12, 2017
Blasting News reported on what would appear Rosenstein conceding to giving Mueller more power for his investigation and that Rod might also be a target. Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Cali.) took to Twitter where he said that if Mueller was fired, Congress would activate him against to continue the investigation. Some on Twitter doubted this saying that Democrats did not have that kind of power, which is likely as this piece determines that Republican commentators want Mueller stopped. For the time being, Trump will not fire Mueller.
