Ryan to President Trump: ‘Let Robert Mueller do his job’
WASHINGTON- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said President Donald Trump should not interfere with Independent Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe.
“I think the best case for the President is to be vindicated by allowing this investigation to go on thoroughly and independently. So I think the best advice would be to let Robert Mueller do his job,” Ryan said in response to a question at a news conference on Tuesday regarding reports that several Republicans have urged Trump to fire Mueller.
Ryan explained that to the best of his knowledge any suggestion that Trump is considering Mueller’s termination is nothing more than “rumors.”
Mueller’s potential dismissal arose Monday evening when Trump’s close friend Christopher Ruddy, who is the CEO of Newsmax, told PBS News Hour: “I think he’s (Trump) considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think he’s weighing that option.”
Ryan shutdown a reporter’s dual question inquiring as to whether he had spoken with Trump about retaining Muller and also whether Congress would consider amending the Independent Counsel statute should the President relieve Muller of his duties.
“You’re creating a debate that’s not occurring here. This is something that I think was a rumor that came out last night,” the Speaker insisted.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last month appointed Muller as independent counsel in the Trump-Russia probe following two days of intense bipartisan criticism stemming from The New York Times reporting that recently fired FBI Director James Comey wrote a memo about a February meeting with President Donald Trump.
During the meeting the president reportedly told Comey that he hoped the Bureau would not pursue the investigation into former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn resigned in February following reports that he had diplomatically engaged Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak prior to President Trump taking office and that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about that conversation.
Those reports suggested that Flynn may have given Kislyak the impression that the incoming administration might be willing to consider lifting sanctions that were imposed on Moscow following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, a Ukrainian territory.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions in early March recused himself from the Justice Department’s Trump-Russia probe following The Washington Post reporting that he had twice met with Kislyak while a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Comey on Thursday told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Flynn was in legal jeopardy at the time President Trump asked him to halt the Bureau’s probe into Flynn. Comey also told the committee that he authorized the leak of the existence of a memorandum documenting the February meeting in which Trump made that request so as to highlight the need for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Comey told the committee that during the meeting in which he was allegedly asked to drop the Flynn investigation that Sessions had left the room. Comey then said he requested that Sessions never again leave him alone with President Trump.
Sessions is scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon in open session before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.