A top democratic senator has warned Donald Trump that firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller would be ‘a gross abuse of power and could spark a constitutional crisis’.
Sen. Mark Warner, who is on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, denounced attacks on Mueller’s impartiality on Wednesday.
Speaking on the senate floor, he urged that the special counsel’s investigation of ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia must be ‘able to go on unimpeded’.
Sen. Mark Warner, (left) who is on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, denounced attacks on Robert Mueller’s (right) impartiality on Wednesday
Russia denies meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and Trump has denied any collusion.
Warner was speaking just one day after the president’s son, Don Jr., blasted the investigation for a supposed lack of impartiality after Mueller remove FBI agent Peter Strzok from his team for exchanging anti-Trump text messages with his lover, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
In them, he suggested that the Mueller probe was an ‘insurance policy’ against a Trump election victory.
During their exchanges, they described Trump as an ‘idiot’ and a ‘loathsome human’ and shared their hopes that Hillary Clinton should win the election.
While Trump’s (pictured on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday) political allies have increased their criticism of Mueller, the president said on Sunday he was not considering firing him
‘Imagine what would happen if we rolled back the clock to 2008,’ Trump Jr. said, and politically biased FBI officials tried to undermine a potential Barack Obama presidency.
‘There would be revolution in the streets. So I’m glad that this is coming out now, because it is good, because real people have to see this,’ he said.
While Trump’s political allies have increased their criticism of Mueller, the president said on Sunday he was not considering firing him.
Republicans on several House of Representatives committees have also announced their own probes into long-standing political grievances, including the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. Clinton, a Democrat, was Trump’s opponent in last year’s election.
‘Over the last several weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible voices have called for President Trump to shut down Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation,’ said Warner, adding that the attacks were ‘seemingly coordinated.’
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has come under fire by Republicans after private text messages between some of his top agents were revealed.
‘Firing Mr. Mueller or any other of the top brass involved in this investigation would not only call into question this administration’s commitment to the truth, but also to our most basic concept of rule of law,’ Warner said. ‘It also has the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis.’
Warner called for Congress to make clear to the president that firing Mueller would have ‘immediate and significant consequences.’
‘Any attempt by this President to remove special counsel Mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities,’ Warner told CNN. ‘These truly are red lines and simply cannot allow them to be crossed.’
House Democrats had circulated rumors last week that Trump would fire Mueller this Friday, just before the Christmas holiday.
Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Tuesday that a deep-state conspiracy to undermine his father is stopping him from making his agenda a reality.
Trump’s White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, said in a statement on Wednesday that the administration ‘willingly affirms yet again, as it has every day this week, there is no consideration being given to the termination of the special counsel.’
‘If the media is going to continue to ask for responses to every absurd and baseless rumor, attention-seeking partisans will continue to spread them,’ Cobb added.
Trump may be worried about following in the footsteps of President Richard Nixon who ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, then the special prosecutor investigating Watergate.
The moment was a huge turning point in the investigation and sparked the infamous Saturday Night Massacre, as Richardson refused and resigned in protest, followed by then-Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, until it was left to solicitor general Robert Bork.