US President Donald Trump said Friday that reports suggesting that he had ordered the firing of Robert Mueller, who oversees the Russia investigation, were “fake news.”
When asked to comment on The New York Times report, claiming that the US president had ordered Mueller’s firing last June, but changed his mind when the White House counsel threatened to resign, Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum that it was “fake news.”
In its Thursday’s article, The New York Times also reported, citing sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, that Trump reversed his decision to fire Mueller after White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II, instructed by Trump to dismiss the special counsel, refused to ask the Justice Department to do this, saying that he would leave his job instead.
McGahn reportedly claimed that firing Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Trump’s presidency and would raise questions about whether the Trump administration was trying to obstruct the investigation into alleged Russian meddling with the 2016 US presidential election and alleged collusion of the Trump campaign team with Moscow.
Trump’s statement comes two days after he said that was “looking forward” to being interviewed by Mueller as part of the Russia probe. The statement was followed by a CNN report, saying that Mueller has provided President Donald Trump’s legal team with a range of topics for an interview.
The topics include questions about the president allegedly asking former FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation against dismissed National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over his alleged links to Russia as well as questions about Trump’s reactions to Comey’s testimony.
Mueller has charged four people involved with or related to Trump’s campaign with a variety of crimes, but none of the cases unveil nefarious US-Russian plots to keep Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, out of the White House.