Top Democratic leaders have warned President Donald Trump of a “constitutional crisis” if he chose to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein by using the Republican memo on FBI’s bias as a “pretext” to disband the probe into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
“Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre,” the Democrats said in a letter to Trump. The “massacre” they alluded to related to events following former President Richard Nixon’s firing of the Special Prosecutor probing the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
Apparently convinced that President Trump and the Republicans would use the just-released memo to discredit Mueller’s probe, Democratic leaders, including Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, told Trump that they would consider any such “unwarranted action” as an “attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation”.
The Democrats’ missive came as their political spat with Trump and the Republicans intensified on the heels of the President’s approval to release the hitherto-classified Republican memo, accusing FBI of “bias” and “surveillance abuse” in dealing with Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
In their memo, the Republicans have alleged that the FBI used information from a dossier prepared by a former anti-Trump British spy, financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, to secure surveillance warrants against Page, the Trump aide with alleged Russian connections.
The FBI has disputed the Republican memo, terming it inaccurate and missing critical context, but Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, rejected those assertions saying the FBI and Justice Department officials repeatedly used Opposition research into then-candidate Trump to obtain surveillance warrants against his aides.
“The memorandum raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government’s most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Prior to that, Trump himself had termed the happenings “a disgrace”, adding that “a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves”.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who was sacked by Trump last May, called the Republican memo “dishonest” and “misleading”. Soon after the release of the memo, Comey tweeted: “That’s itIJ Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For whatIJ DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.”
As Trump left for his Mar-a-lago resort in Florida to spend the weekend after an eventful Friday, Democrats and media pundits debated the grim possibility of high-level dismissals or resignations. Apart from publication of the memo, Trump’s own stinging attacks on top Justice Department and FBI officials fuelled the suspicions further.
When a reporter asked Trump if he had confidence in Rosenstein, he retorted: “You figure that one out.” However, later in the day, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah denied any move to oust Rosenstein. “There has been no change in the president's confidence in the deputy attorney general,” Shah told CNN.