March 18 (UPI) — A lawyer for President Donald Trump on Saturday said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should end Robert Mueller‘s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign had ties with Russia.
John Dowd made the statement after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, one of the first officials at the bureau to scrutinize possible links between the Trump team and Russian election meddling.
Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, is overseeing the investigation after Sessions recused himself last year. McCabe was fired late Friday, a few days before he was to retire with full pension benefits.
“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier,” Dowd said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a tweet that Dowd’s comments are another indication that Trump and his legal team will not cooperate with Mueller and will “undermine him at every turn.”
“The President, the administration, and his legal team must not take any steps to curtail, interfere with, or end the special counsel’s investigation or there will be severe consequences from both Democrats and Republicans,” Schumer tweeted.
The president and his advocates have been critical of the FBI and agents working with Mueller on the investigation.
Late Friday Trump expressed his thoughts about the McCabe firing on Twitter.
“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”
On Saturday the president picked up where he left off on the matter.
“As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp”
“The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!”
Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May on recommendations from the top two officials in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Comey on Saturday issued a response to Trump, also on Twitter.
“Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.”
