Reactions to the Mueller special counsel investigation
Reactions to the Special Counsel investigation of any Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election have been widely varied and have evolved over time.Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) stated, "Bob was a fine U.S. attorney, a great FBI director and there's no better person who could be asked to perform this function.""[16] Former United States Attorney Preet Bharara wrote of the team that "Bob Mueller is recruiting the smartest and most seasoned professionals who have a long track record of independence and excellence".[19] Some conservatives, including political commentators Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, stated that Mueller should be dismissed and the investigation closed."[27] In a two-minute monologue that same day, Fox News anchorman Shepard Smith flatly debunked that assertion and a number of other Trump narratives, saying, "you laugh at them because there's almost nothing else you can do.[37] In August 2017, Trump said he had never thought about firing Mueller, and by December 2017, he had denied it twice more; in that time period his lawyers and advisers also issued five similar denials.[39] Also, in June 2017, Trump reportedly instructed his aides to start a campaign for his administration and his Republican allies to discredit potential witnesses in the investigation, including FBI officials Andrew McCabe, Jim Rybicki, and James Baker."[43] Under Department of Justice regulations, that authority can only be exercised by Rosenstein, the DOJ official in charge of the special counsel investigation, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump believes he has the power to do it directly, although he is not currently acting to do so.[57] On March 17, 2018, Trump's personal attorney, John Dowd, urged Rod Rosenstein to follow the "courageous example" of Sessions in dismissing Andrew McCabe and "bring an end" to the Mueller investigation.Both are longtime Republican activists, having appeared on Fox News on numerous occasions to criticize Democrats, most notably Bill and Hillary Clinton.In January 2018, diGenova said on Fox News, "There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn't win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, a staunch Trump ally, had requested the expanded access for weeks, while Democrats asserted it was an effort by Republicans to gain information they could use to undermine the Mueller investigation.[73] On July 26, 2017, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz introduced a congressional resolution calling for a special counsel investigation into the handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy by James Comey, undue interference of Attorney General Loretta Lynch in that investigation, and the acquisition of Uranium One by the Russian state corporation Rosatom during Mueller's time as FBI director.[76] On August 24, 2017, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) added a rider to the proposed fiscal 2018 spending bill package that would block funding from being used "for the investigation under that order of matters occurring before June 2015" (the month Trump announced he was running for president) immediately and terminated funding for the special counsel investigation 180 days after passage of the bill.The Nunes memo,[84] based on classified information, alleged that the FBI and Department of Justice "may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources" in October 2016 in seeking authorization for a wiretap on Carter Page, a former adviser to Trump's campaign.The response contended the wiretaps were properly obtained and were warranted because Page had been assessed by intelligence agencies as "an agent of the Russian government," adding that "Our extensive review of the initial FISA application and three subsequent renewals failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead revealed that both the FBI and DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests."[88][84] The New York Times reported on March 28, 2018, that the Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz would investigate accusations of wrongdoing surrounding the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, "amid a stream of attacks in recent months from the White House and Republican lawmakers seeking to undermine the special counsel's investigation."[89] The announcement fell short of the demands of several Republican politicians and prominent Trump supporters such as Sean Hannity for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate.In a letter to three Republican Congressional committee chairmen, Sessions said he would rely on Huber's findings to decide if a special counsel needed to be appointed.[93] A majority of American people and news media outlets have supported the investigation onto ties between Donald Trump and his associates with Russia and its affiliates.Many late night show hosts have taken to defending the investigation through their comedy routines, including Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyers and John Oliver.[101] A poll published in November 2017 by ABC News and The Washington Post found that 58% of Americans approved of Mueller's handling of his investigation, while 28% disapproved."[105] The same poll found that 60 percent of voters say that "a comment to the FBI director that he should consider letting Flynn off the hook" is not enough to constitute obstruction of justice.