Schumer to GOP: Defend Mueller

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is urging Republicans to defend special counsel Robert Mueller amid a new wave of criticism from some prominent conservatives of the person leading the probe into Russia’s election interference.

“I’d urge that these attacks on Mr. Mueller be ceased, and that my friends on the other side of the aisle join me in defending his reputation. The critics are going a little too far here,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.

Schumer added that if President Trump is weighing asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller, he should “look back in time and see what happened to a president who tried to do the same thing.”

“If the White House truly has nothing to hide, they ought to encourage special counsel Mueller to investigate. They should let him do his job. When people say when there’s smoke, there’s fire, they’re pointing to actions like this, and it makes the American people distrustful of the White House and their allies,” he said.

In 1973, former President Richard Nixon asked then-Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. The two officials refused and resigned — sparking the “Saturday Night Massacre” — and the special prosecutor was eventually fired by the solicitor general, Robert Bork.

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Schumer’s comments come after Trump’s friend Chris Ruddy told PBS that the president was “considering, perhaps, terminating the special counsel. I think he is weighing that option.” A White House official told BuzzFeed that Ruddy was “speaking for himself and did not speak to the president.”

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a Trump ally, has also accused Mueller of hiring “bad people” for the Russia investigation. Gingrich, who said Trump called him on Monday to talk about his concerns, questioned Mueller’s ability to be impartial.

Congressional Republicans are signaling little appetite for getting rid of Mueller, who previously served as director of the FBI under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“I’ve seen no reason for that,” Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said Tuesday when asked about firing Mueller.

Cornyn added that he trusts the former FBI director, who is widely respected in Washington, to conduct the investigation into Russia’s election meddling and any ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) also directed a question from The Hill to the White House.

“The only thing I’ve seen is what you guys have printed in the press, so I have no reason to even take on the question,” he said.

Trump can’t directly fire Mueller, but could ask Rosenstein to fire him.

Rosenstein told lawmakers during a Justice Department budget hearing on Tuesday that he hasn’t seen a “good cause” for firing Mueller.