Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Thursday evening he doubts President Trump could have come up with a list of conflicts of interest to justify the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller by himself, and suggested that both Mueller and congressional investigators might need to investigate individuals beyond Trump for possible obstruction of justice.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Blumenthal reacted to the New York Times’ bombshell report that President Trump ordered special counsel Robert Mueller to be fired in the summer of 2017.
Trump never went through with the order after White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit, but Blumenthal took particular issue with the report’s mentioning of how Trump had argued Mueller was disqualified from leading the federal Russia inquiry due to three conflicts of interest.
“These supposed conflicts are preposterous, absolutely ludicrous as a reason to fire the special counsel. They don’t even pass the smell test as we say in the legal profession,” said Blumenthal, a former attorney general of Connecticut.
According to the Times, Trump made his case pointing to a dispute concerning fees at Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., that led to Mueller ending his membership there, and to Mueller being previously employed at a firm that represented his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Trump also mentioned Mueller was interviewed to return to his old post as FBI director right before he was appointed in May to be special counsel.
Blumenthal said he is “hard put to believe that Donald Trump on his own sitting at his desk concocted or constructed this list of potential conflicts.”
Maddow pressed him on this point, asking if Trump had actively sought to obstruct Mueller’s investigation then should the Judiciary Committee, of which Blumenthal is a member, and Mueller’s team investigate other people for possibly obstructing justice.
Blumenthal said yes to both.
“The answer is unequivocally yes to both questions. The Judiciary Committee should be looking into it because obstruction of justice and the threat to law enforcement is directly within our responsibility, and secondly, remember, this remarkable news report is not news to Robert Mueller,” he said. “He knows about it. He has been talking to the very people who have talked to these reporters and no doubt he is investigating those individuals who may have assisted, aided and abetted in this potential obstruction of justice.”
Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the Times report, but several follow-ups from other outlets have confirmed at least that Trump had sought to fire Mueller.
Mueller was picked in May 2017 to lead the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Mueller’s team is also looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, and according to a Washington Post report in June of last year, expanded the probe to look at whether Trump obstructed justice.
Blumenthal also renewed his call for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that would protect Mueller from being fired by Trump.
“Stunning, deeply scary Trump move to fire Mueller raises need for Special Counsel protection bill immediately. Judiciary Committee must approve and Congress must pass,” he tweeted Thursday evening.
