A senior White House official said Monday that there are no plans to fire Robert Mueller, even as President Trump has been ramping up his attacks against the special counsel.
“There are no conversations or discussions about removing Mr. Mueller,” said deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley.
Still, Gidley acknowledged the president’s “well-established frustration” with the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Trump campaign officials had improper contacts with Moscow.
“There has been no collusion,” Gidley said.{mosads}
“The president believes this is the biggest witch hunt in history,” he added.
Over the weekend, Trump sent a string of tweets in which he called out Mueller by name for the first time and accused him of stocking the special counsel with Democrats.
Speculation that the president might be preparing to fire Mueller escalated after Trump’s personal attorney John Dowd called for an end to the investigation.
“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by [Andrew] McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd said.
Dowd later said he was speaking only for himself and not for the president.
Trump on Monday added another lawyer — former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova — to his personal legal team. DiGenova has in the past mused about the Justice Department framing Trump by “creating a false crime” of collusion.
But the White House has sought to tamp down speculation that Mueller’s firing is imminent.
White House counsel Ty Cobb, who is leading Trump’s in-house legal team in dealing with Mueller, is saying that the special counsel is safe.
The White House has consistently said they are cooperating with the special counsel in hopes that the investigation will soon draw to a close.
“In response to media speculation and related questions being posed to the Administration, the White House yet again confirms that the President is not considering or discussing the firing of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,” Cobb said.