Politics

White House Continues To Warn That Mueller’s Investigation Should Not Expand Beyond Russian Meddling

Getty Images

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
Font Size:

WASHINGTON — The White House continued to warn Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation should not leave the scope of looking into alleged Russian election interference.

President Donald Trump sat down with The New York Times Wednesday and insisted that it would be a “violation” for Mueller to investigate the finances of him or his family in a manner unrelated to the Russia investigation. The president said this would cross a red line, but when asked whether he would fire Mueller if he were to do this, Trump replied, “I can’t, I can’t answer that question because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Bloomberg subsequently reported Thursday that Mueller has expanded his investigation to include looking at business transactions involving Trump’s companies and those of his associates. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about this report at a press briefing Thursday, and she replied that she needs to find out more details about this report, and added, “I don’t believe everything I read in the paper.”

“The president has been clear that he has no financial dealings with Russia and he thinks the investigation should stay within the confines of Russian election meddling and nothing beyond that,” Sanders continued.

The spokeswoman later said in the briefing that President Trump has the ability to fire Mueller but “has no intention to do so at this time.” A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

The Daily Caller has previously asked multiple Trump allies whether they think the president should fire Mueller and they said no. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter said that “it’s too late” to do so.

“I think Mueller is a disaster not because Trump has done anything wrong, but because special counsels are unelected, unaccountable roving perjury traps,” Coulter wrote in an email to TheDC. Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, however, has been outspoken in his belief that Trump should get rid of the special counsel.

He has dubbed the investigation a “witch hunt,” like Trump and Sanders both have, and said in June that “Mueller intends to cook up what I think is either an obstruction of justice charge or a perjury charge against the president to give the Democrats a hook for their impeachment march.”