The first is into whether anyone on Trump's campaign, or associated with it, with him or with any of his businesses, may have had any illegal dealings with Russian officials or others with ties to the Kremlin, said the official. "Some maxed out, none wanted Trump to be POTUS". On Monday, a Trump friend said the president was considering dismissing Mueller although the White House said later he had no plans to do so.
Trump's failure to endorse Mueller amounts to a crude display of his possible powers. They have begun questioning whether Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is becoming too political.
Trump and his supporters cast Comey's testimony that he had told the president he was not personally under investigation as vindication. Earlier this week, reports emerged that Trump was thinking about firing Mueller, too - an act that would likely lead to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's resignation, and perhaps a governmental crisis.
Until now, Mueller had drawn widespread praise from Republicans and Democrats alike. In sworn testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, fired FBI Director James Comey laid out in stark detail the steps Trump allegedly took to get Comey to back off the Flynn inquiry. As everyone who follows Preet Bharara on the electric Twitter machine-and why don't you, by the way?-knew was coming, the news that special counsel Robert Mueller had rolled out the railroad artillery broke well after the close of business.
But expressions of discontent with Mueller are bubbling up nonetheless. "I'm not talking about anything else", Trump added. And frankly, James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has advised Trump to "let Robert Mueller do his job", and even recent White House transplant Melania Trump has reportedly told her husband that keeping Mueller will speed the resolution of the Russian Federation scandal.
A spokesman for Mueller's team declined to comment.
Both men refused the president's request, the Post said. At the same time, you also have constitutional lawyers, like Alan Dershowitz, ripping Democrats for stretching criminal statutes to ensnare the Trump White House. "Ruddy never spoke to the president regarding this issue".
Video captures blimp catch fire and crash at US Open
People have been tweeting out footage of those on board the flaming blimp parachuting to the ground with brief information. Open in Wisconsin crashed Thursday afternoon, with the pilot reported to be "OK", according to The Associated Press.
No wonder Trump is still ruminating about firing Mueller.
Tuesday the Federal Bureau of Investigation took possession of notes and memos that Mr. Comey wrote about his private meetings with Mr. Trump and then passed to a law professor in NY to leak to the media.
Reuters/Joshua RobertsDonald Trump's job approval ratings hit new lows in recent polls.
A spokesperson for NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers said the "NSA will fully cooperate with the special counsel". The ex-FBI boss testified in a senate hearing last week that he believed he was sacked "because of the Russian Federation investigation". Still, Gingrich said any special counsel with an agenda can "all of the sudden find something procedural and technical to latch onto".
All of which makes Trump's efforts to belittle the investigation and move past it that much more hard.
Trump also retweeted law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has called for a halt to conversations about obstruction of justice because there was "no plausible case". Sessions told senators on Tuesday that he'd recused himself because he was part of Trump's campaign.
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