WH and Lawyer: Trump Not Talking About Firing Mueller

Marc Short, Steven Mnuchin, and Ty Cobb all said the same thing
By Josh Rosenblatt,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2017 12:30 PM CST
White House Officials: No Talk of Firing Mueller
White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Two high-ranking members of Donald Trump's team said there's been no talk at the White House of firing Robert Mueller, even as the president's legal team accused the special counsel of obtaining emails from the Trump transition team illegally. Appearing on Meet the Press today, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short said there's been "no conversation about that in the White House whatsoever," Politico reports. "You guys keep bringing that up," he added. "We've continued to cooperate in every single possible way in that investigation." Yesterday White House lawyer Ty Cobb reiterated that the president has no plans to fire Mueller. “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.

Meanwhile, on CNN's State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had to take time away from extolling the Republican tax-reform bill to address rumors about Mueller's future, the New York Daily News reports. Mnuchin said he hadn't "heard anything about this, any firing" at the White House, but said the decision would ultimately lie with Trump. "I don't have any reason to think that the president is going to do that, but that's obviously up to him," Mnuchin said. Outside the White House, Republican Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said he thinks firing Mueller "would be a mistake myself." (More Donald Trump stories.)

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