President Donald Trump denied Thursday he ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“As has been incorrectly reported by the Fake News Media, I never told then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller, even though I had the legal right to do so,” the president wrote on Twitter. “If I wanted to fire Mueller, I didn’t need McGahn to do it, I could have done it myself.”
Trump noted that ultimately Mueller was not fired and was allowed to complete his investigation, even though there was no crime to investigate.
He described Mueller as a “Trump hater” who led a group of “very angry” Democrat lawyers.
“Despite the fact that the Mueller Report was ‘composed’ by Trump Haters and Angry Democrats, who had unlimited funds and human resources, the end result was No Collusion, No Obstruction,” Trump wrote. “Amazing!”
According to the Muller report, McGahn told investigators that the president called him in June 2017 and told him to “Call Rod [Rosenstein] tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel.” The New York Times published a story in January 2018 detailing the events, angering the president who believed that McGahn leaked the story.
Trump met with McGahn, ordering him to deny the New York Times story but McGahn refused. The president disputed that he actually ordered McGahn to fire Mueller and reminded McGahn that he never specifically told the president that he would resign.