Donald Trump says he did not fire Robert Mueller because the layoffs "did not work out very well" for Richard Nixon



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"I was not going to fire (Mueller), you know why, because I saw Richard Nixon chasing everyone and that did not work very well," Trump said in a statement. interview with George Stephanopoulos, ABC, Sunday.

Trump seemed to refer to the "Saturday Night Massacre", in which Nixon, on October 20, 1973, ordered the dismissal of Archibald Cox as special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation. Rather than obeying the order, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned. Cox was eventually fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork.

The Mueller report describes how Trump attempted to fire the special advocate, although he stated in the interview with ABC News that he was not going to fire Mueller. .

According to the report, Trump reportedly asked White House lawyer Don McGahn to remove Mueller. Instead of following the order, McGahn prepared a resignation letter, briefed his deputies and quickly contacted his personal solicitor. Despite this incident and other efforts by Trump to impede the investigation, Mueller was allowed to complete his work.

During the interview, Trump insisted that he was entitled to dismiss Mueller – if he had so decided – from Article II of the Constitution, declaring to Stephanopoulos that "Article II allows me to do anything I want to fire him."

Article II of the US Constitution defines the duties and powers of the president, including his skills as commander-in-chief of the army, as well as the procedure to be followed to elect and dismiss a president. In his report, Mueller acknowledged that the constitution gives Trump "a powerful and unique way to influence official procedures, junior officers and potential witnesses."
The rumor of lies and lies of Trump after Mueller refused to exonerate him

In letters to the Special Council, Trump's lawyers argued that Article II fundamentally protected Trump from any investigation, even for taking legally authorized measures. This includes the dismissal of the FBI director, as he had done with the then director, James Comey, in May 2017.

Mueller categorically rejected this argument when Trump's lawyers attempted to present it. The Mueller report notes that the Constitution does not give Trump unlimited powers, and specifically does not give him the ability to circumvent federal investigations and eventual Congressional accountability.

Trump also spoke in the interview Trump Tower Moscow, the caller plus a "concept" that a deal.

"I did not even reach an agreement in Moscow," Trump told Stephanopoulos, who lobbied the president for the deal to be concluded, saying he was pursuing one.

Trump replied, "Excuse me, continue, what does it mean to continue, do you know that I do not even think they had a site, I do not even think they knew who would make the deal. a concept of agreement, more than a concept, it was a concept of agreement somewhere in Russia, probably in Moscow, and I was looking at places all over the world. "

Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer, is currently serving a three-year jail sentence, in part for being found guilty of lying to the Congress on the Trump Tower project in Moscow. And last week, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., testified before Congress about the project, saying that he had not paid attention to it because it was about One of the many potential contracts in progress, according to one source. near Trump Jr.

Cohen led efforts during the 2016 presidential campaign to build a Trump project in Moscow and even asked the Kremlin for help, according to the Mueller report. The project did not take place. Trump said during the campaign that he had no interest in Russia and that he had not acknowledged Moscow's unsuccessful efforts until it was in power.

CNN's Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

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