A White House lawyer managing the president’s response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation denied rumors that the president is considering firing the special counsel.
In a statement to Politico, Ty Cobb said that the rumors floating around Capitol Hill that President Trump is considering firing Mueller are untrue.
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“As the White House has repeatedly and emphatically said for months, there is no consideration at the White House of terminating the special counsel,” Cobb said.
Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier (Calif.) told a local news station on Friday that a “rumor” on the Hill indicated that Trump was preparing to fire the special counsel as soon as this week.
“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller,” Speier told California’s KQED News on Friday.
Speier added that she believes Trump wants the special counsel investigation shut down as soon as possible.
“We can read between the lines I think,” Speier said. “I believe this president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations, and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the president was considering firing Mueller during a press conference in October.
“There is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to the special counsel,” she said at the time. “I think we should let the process play through before we start looking at that.”