US President Donald Trump has rejected “Fake News Media” reports that he told “then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire [Special Counsel] Robert Mueller”.
Writing on his Twitter page, Trump said that if he'd wanted to fire Mueller, he had “the legal right to do so” all by himself.
“Nevertheless, Mueller was not fired and was respectfully allowed to finish his work on what I, and many others, say was an illegal investigation (there was no crime), headed by a Trump hater who was highly conflicted, and a group of 18 very angry Democrats,” Trump tweeted, insisting on the need for “draining the swamp”.
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The remarks came after US House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler reportedly subpoenaed former White House Counsel Don McGahn earlier this week to testify before the panel in its investigation of possible obstruction of justice by Trump.
Reuters quoted Nadler as saying that “Mr. McGahn is a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report”.
According to the report, McGahn had been on the verge of resigning when Trump told him to ask Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller. Trump then denied using the word “fire”, which Reuters used in reporting McGahn's words to Mueller.
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Nadler’s subpoena followed last week's release of the results of Mueller's probe into allegations of collusion between Trump's team and Russia.
Russia has repeatedly denied any claims of interference in the US political system, stressing that the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of Trump's opponent as well as deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud.