Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, said in an interview on PBS NewsHour on Monday that President Trump is considering firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian Federation.
However, White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied Ruddy has spoken to the President about the issue. Dianne Feinstein of California, Rosenstein testified that now he would have to assent to Mueller's firing because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal from investigations involving the 2016 campaign and that he would not now do so because he did not see the good cause that is required by the special counsel law.
Rosenstein is charged with Mueller's fate because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters having to do with the Trump-Russia investigation.
Ruddy opined that he thinks firing Mueller "would be a very significant mistake", but, as he always does, stood by to defend Trump, saying he didn't think there was "justification" for hiring a special counsel at all. Ruddy's remarks came on the heels of Trump loyalists growing louder with their calls that Mueller should be removed from heading up the Russian Federation probe.
But a long-time friend of Mr Trump said the president was considering sacking Mr Mueller. Lindsey Graham of SC tried to clarify where that line for "good cause" was.
"Firing special prosecutors tends not to work as we all learned from Watergate", Starr said in an interview on "GMA", adding that "it would be very wise to allow the special counsel to do his work".
But he would not be able to fire him directly unless he opted to repeal the special counsel regulations enacted in 1999, according to Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general who helped draft the regulations governing the appointment of a special counsel.
Department of Justice regulations stipulate that the attorney general (or, in this case, Rosenstein) "may remove a Special Counsel for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies", and must "inform the Special Counsel in writing of the specific reason for his or her removal".
'Traitor' Kumar Vishwas: Rift within AAP out in the open
Asked about the posters, Vishwas said "when God and party workers are giving answers", there is no need for him to respond. Summary: Posters outside AAP office. "Remove such a traitor", read one poster.
Ruddy told Woodruff that Trump was optimistic after the Comey hearing and "generally felt he had won a victory".
He also declared it a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest he was aware of or took part in any collusion between Russian Federation and the election campaign that sent Mr Trump to the White House.
'I mean, George, you know, we've all been concerned about leaks and here he was the source of that leak, ' he added.
Leahy also said Sessions owed it to the 116,000 DOJ "agents, intelligence analysts, attorneys, and support personnel"-along with state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials-to explain the the department's budget request, which Leahy referred to as "abysmal".
Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy stood by his claims after the White House downplayed his comments and suggested he did not know what he was talking about.
Sekulow's questioning of coziness between Comey and Mueller prompted Stephanopoulos to ask if the president and his legal team 'don't have confidence in Robert Mueller to conduct a fair investigation?'
Ruddy also said Mueller was under consideration for the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation before he was appointed special counsel, as reported earlier by NPR.
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