Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein on Wednesday warned that the country is in a “constitutional crisis.”
“We are in a constitutional crisis,” Bernstein, who has often been critical of Trump’s actions, said during an interview on CNN.
“The president of the United States has made clear to those around him and to those who are closest to him in the White House and among his friends that he is determined to shut down this investigation.”
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Bernstein said the moment Trump has chosen to act on it is “when the special prosecutor and other prosecutors have gotten hold of his lawyer’s computers.”
He said the computers have “perhaps evidence of real conspiracy between the president of the United States and others.”
“Or there could be exculpatory information there if, as the president maintains, and few even around him believe, that there is no ‘there’ there and that this is really a witch hunt,” he said.
“We have a president of the United States willing to risk a constitutional crisis for this nation so he can avoid legitimate investigation and letting the facts roll out the way they ought to to the end of an investigation.”
Bernstein also rejected President Trump’s characterization that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference is a “witch hunt.”
“This is about a lawless president of the United States determined to avoid accountability,” he said.
The comments come after a report that Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after federal investigators raided the office of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The raid of Cohen’s office reportedly enraged the president, who has repeatedly denied collusion between his campaign and Russia and has referred to the Russia probe as a “witch hunt.”
Rosenstein reportedly personally signed off on the raid of Cohen’s office.
A New York Times report Tuesday also said Trump attempted to fire Mueller in December after he became enraged over reports that the special counsel had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records on Trump’s finances.