A letter written in May by President Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, a top political adviser to the president, to fired FBI Director James Comey is now in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller. The letter, however, was blocked by Don McGahn, the White House Counsel, who objected to the angry tone of the letter which he considered problematic.
The issues raised by McGahn include the number of times that Comey assured Trump he was not under investigation in the Russian probe initiated by the FBI, The New York Times reported. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was given a copy of the letter.
He drafted another letter that served as the rationale for firing Comey.
Mishandling of Clinton probe
The Rosenstein version cited the alleged mishandling by the FBI of the probe on Hillary Clinton’s private email server. McGahn’s objection was that Trump’s reason for firing Comey may fail if scrutinized by the public. It led to building a more public case that was easier to defend by the White House.
Besides his alleged mishandling of the Clinton probe, the White House cited the alleged loss of confidence in Comey by the FBI. By firing him, the pressure on the White House was lifted. Trump fired Comey on May 9, but days later, the president admitted to NBC that the reason he fired Comey was that he refused to stop the Russia investigation which implicated several members of the Trump campaign team, The New York Post reported.
When Trump fired Comey, he cited the draft by Rosenstein as a recommendation of the Department of Justice, The New York Daily News noted.
DoJ provides copy of letter
Mueller got hold of the original draft by Trump and Miller after the Department of Justice handed a copy to the special counsel. No one among the mainstream media that reported the handover of the unsent letter has seen the document.
The letter was drafted during a weekend in May at the golf course owned by Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey. Since media has not read the letter, it is not clear how much of its rationale focused on the Russian probe. Although Comey assured Trump privately several times that he was not being investigated, the FBI official refused to state it in public because of the possibility that the situation would change.
It seems Comey acted on a hunch that was proven correct by recent events such as Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner. and Paul Manafort meeting with a Russian who offered political dirt on Clinton. When Trump Jr. finally admitted the meeting, it was his father who dictated his son's statement to media during a plane trip.
