President Donald Trump has recently considered whether he should fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
According to an anonymously-sourced report in Axios, unnamed “Trump associates” claim the president has “mused” about possibly firing the man whose investigation is widely-believed to be the only existential threat to his own presidency, but apparently Trump has yet to reach a decision as to whether or not to do so.
One of those so-called associates has given a hint to the president’s thinking, however, saying that firing Mueller at this point would be akin to “firing the Pope.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has considered firing the special counsel.
According to NewsMax CEO, Chris Ruddy–who is a close friend of Trump’s–the president thought about removing Mueller after reports of his chumminess with former FBI Director James Comey.
Those initial termination discussions apparently occurred in June–just weeks after Mueller was brought on to the job. Trump was reportedly advised not to fire the special counsel at that point.
As those reports came out, LawNewz analyzed whether Trump has such authority to fire Mueller and determined that he in fact, did–but cautioned that such a move would be highly controversial to say the least.
Mueller was hired on May 17, 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate any and all links between the Russian government and the presidential campaign of then-candidate Trump, “and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
[image via screengrab]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
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