Trump Derides ‘Fake News Media’ for Reporting He Told White House Counsel to Fire Robert Mueller
President Trump began Thursday morning as is his wont: sending out raging tweets attacking the Mueller report for one of the more dramatic moments detailed in its pages.
The president was trying to deny a passage in the Mueller report claiming that he ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel. This effort came to light as part of Mueller’s report into whether Trump committed obstruction of justice in trying to shut down the entire investigation:
As has been incorrectly reported by the Fake News Media, I never told then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller, even though I had the legal right to do so. If I wanted to fire Mueller, I didn’t need McGahn to do it, I could have done it myself. Nevertheless,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2019
….Mueller was NOT fired and was respectfully allowed to finish his work on what I, and many others, say was an illegal investigation (there was no crime), headed by a Trump hater who was highly conflicted, and a group of 18 VERY ANGRY Democrats. DRAIN THE SWAMP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2019
This is true in the narrowest sense. According to the report, Trump called McGahn at home on June 17, 2017, and “directed him to have the Special Counsel removed.” Trump was so wound up that he actually called McGahn twice “and on both occasions directed him to call [Rod] Rosenstein and say that Mueller had conflicts that precluded him from serving as Special Counsel.”
On Twitter, Charlie Savage of The New York Times pointed out that Trump’s assertion he told McGahn to fire Mueller is technically true. He actually ordered McGahn to order Rosenstein to do it:
Lawsplain: As an “inferior” officer, Mueller could be removed by dept head who appointed him. So McGahn couldn’t fire Mueller. Contra his claim here, Trump probably couldn’t directly do that either: he had to order Rosenstein (whom he could fire) to do it. https://t.co/6WaY0bIYr0
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) April 25, 2019
It has been widely reported that Trump prefers having underlings do his firing for him, so even if he could legally fire Mueller, it is highly unlikely he would have.
But he is narrowly speaking the truth here about not telling McGahn to fire Mueller. Instead, he told McGahn to tell someone else to fire Mueller. It is a distinction without a difference, but his defenders will probably try to pretend otherwise.
