Attorney General William Barr accused the New York Times of botching a report that claimed President Trump instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire special counsel Robert Mueller who was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
According to Barr, there was “no question” that Trump’s instruction to McGahn was to contact Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and relay concerns that Mueller had a conflict of interest that prohibited him from leading the investigation.
Barr told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that Trump later clarified that “what he meant was that the conflict of interest should be raised with Rosenstein, but the decision should be left with Rosenstein.”
“On the other end of the spectrum, it appears that McGahn felt it was more directive and that the President was essentially saying push Rosenstein to invoke a conflict of interest to push Mueller out,” Barr said.
“Wherever it fell on that spectrum of interest, the New York Times story was very different. The New York Times story said flat out that the president directed the firing of Mueller,” Barr said. “He told McGahn, ‘fire Mueller.’ Now there’s something very different between firing a special counsel outright, which suggests ending the investigation and having a special counsel removed for conflict, which suggests you’re going to have another special counsel.”
Barr blasts a New York Times article reporting @realDonaldTrump directed that Robert Mueller be fired.
“There is evidence the President truly felt the Times article was inaccurate and he wanted McGahn to correct it,” Barr said. pic.twitter.com/CAYyzZOtY1
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 1, 2019
Federal regulations outlined that Mueller could only be fired by the attorney general. But then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, meaning Rosenstein oversaw the investigation and was the only one who could have fired Mueller.
According to the New York Times report from January 2018, Trump sought to oust Mueller in June 2017. Although he instructed McGahn to fire Mueller, McGahn did not abide by the order and warned he would step down from his post.
The New York Times claimed Trump cited that there were conflicts of interests that prevented Mueller from carrying out his investigation. For example, he asserted there was a dispute concerning fees at Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., which prompted Mueller to end his membership there.
He also noted that Mueller was previously employed by a firm that represented his son-in-law and White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
A redacted version of Mueller’s report says Trump called McGahn twice and ordered him to “call Rod” in June 2017. McGahn told the special counsel that Trump first said, “‘You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod.”
In the second call, McGahn claimed that Trump was more “direct, saying something like, ‘Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel.’ McGahn recalled the President telling him ‘Mueller has to go’ and ‘Call me back when you do it.’”
