Comey also testified he had told Trump he was not under investigation.
Trump can not directly dismiss Mueller.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller last month, testified Tuesday he has seen no evidence of good cause to fire Mueller.
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who The Associated Press reports is a close friend of Trump, said that the president is considering "terminating" the special counsel, who is charged with investigating the president's 2016 campaign ties to the Russian government.
According to the paper, Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers's recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller's investigators as early as this week.
The former House speaker Newt Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser, tweeted on Monday: "Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair".
"I personally think it would be a very significant mistake", Ruddy said.
"Director Mueller is going to have the full independence he needs to conduct that investigation, " Rosenstein said. He said Trump had called him Monday night and the two discussed Gingrich's concerns about the probe.
"The attorney general is the one who has to fire him", said CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on "Anderson Cooper 360".
Pilot seriously burned after blimp crashes at US Open
Rescue crews used utility vehicles to reach the crash site , about a half mile from the golf course . In a statement the USGA reiterated that the blimp was not affiliated with the tournament.
Burr also did he didn't think they would meet in person with Mueller again, but would be in touch if deconfliction issues arise.
"I think that Mueller shouldn't have taken the position", Ruddy said, "if he was under consideration and had a private conversation with the president and was privy maybe to some of his thoughts about that investigation or other matters before the bureau". "Officials say that changed shortly after Comey's firing", the Post reports.
"Whoever leaked [news of the obstruction investigation] was obviously reading that he was thinking about giving Mueller the boot", the official told The Daily Beast.
The White House made no official response, and now all Russia-related questions are being handled by Trump's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
However, Trump's staff talked him out of firing Mueller - a decision they believed would have been bad for his administration, the sources told the Times.
'Yeah, all I've heard so much are rumors, ' Ryan said during his Capitol Hill presser Tuesday morning.
However, Mr. Sekulow emphasized he thought it "completely conjecture and speculative, and I can not imagine that the issue would arise".
It wasn't clear whether Ruddy, who speaks with the president often, was basing his remarks on a specific conversation with the president or entirely on Sekulow's comments.





Comments