‘Would have fired Mueller if I wanted to,’ tweets Trump

Robert Mueller, the prosecutor investigating alleged Russian influence on the 2016 US elections, would have been fired by now if US President Donald Trump wanted him gone, tweeted the president yesterday.“If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him,” wrote the president.“Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper,” he wrote in a reference to a Tuesday report.US media have speculated for months that Trump would like to fire Mueller, whose investigation has looked into alleged misdeeds by people in Trump’s presidential campaign.Mueller’s special prosecution was enabled a year ago by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey, reportedly because Comey refused to pledge loyalty to the president.Since then, Mueller’s probe has seen former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn plead guilty to making false statements; won an indictment against campaign official Paul Manafort for money laundering; and overseen a case that led to a guilty plea by Rick Gates, another campaign official for conspiracy.This week, FBI agents raided the offices of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly while searching for documents related to alleged affairs the president had.The tip that led to the raid allegedly came from the Mueller investigation.On Wednesday, a Trump spokeswoman said the president believes he has the power to fire Mueller.Additionally, in recent days, Trump has routinely referred to the investigation as “conflicted,” “corrupt,” “a total witch hunt,” and the raid on Cohen’s office as “unthinkable.”