Donald Trump tried to have Robert Mueller sacked last year

Donald Trump reportedly ordered Robert Mueller to be sacked last June, until a senior counsel threatened to quit over the issue.

Donald Trump tried to fire Robert Mueller last June. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump ordered the sacking of special counsel Robert Mueller last June before backing off after his lawyer threatened to resign rather than follow his instructions.

The bombshell report, in The New York Times, could cause ­significant damage to the US President because if accurate, it shows a ­disregard for the legal process and the independence of the judicial system.

According to the Times, Mr Trump tried to fire Mr Mueller in June after learning that he was also seeking to investigate the President about possible obstruction of justice in Mr Trump’s decision to sack then FBI chief James Comey the month before.

It says that at that time Mr Trump gave the order to sack Mr Mueller on three grounds.

The first was that Mr Mueller could not be impartial because he had previously worked at a law firm that represented Mr Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The second was that Mr Mueller had been interviewed to return as FBI director the day before he was appointed special counsel. The third was a dispute involving Mr Mueller over fees at the Trump National Golf Club in ­Virginia that led to him ­resigning his membership.

White House counsel Robert McGahn threatened to ­resign rather than relay Mr Trump’s order, arguing that such a move would be devastating for his presidency.

Mr McGahn believed that any move to sack Mr Mueller would only fuel claims that the White House was trying to hide information and obstruct the Russian investigation.

After receiving this advice, Mr Trump is said to have wavered for months about whether to sack Mr Mueller but eventually the President backed off and let if go.

The revelation shows how furious the President was about the appointment of Mr Mueller by Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein — after Attorney-General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the investigation — and how far he was willing to go to avoid scrutiny of his dealings with Mr Comey.

Mr Trump pushed back against the newspaper report last night as he arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Fake news, folks. Fake news. Typical New York Times fake ­stories,” the President said.

Mr Mueller reportedly learned several months ago of Mr Trump’s desire to sack him and is seeking an interview with the President about all aspects of his investi­gation, including whether or not he tried to obstruct justice.

Mr Trump’s order to sack Mr Mueller came after it was reported in May that the latter would ­investigate the circumstances ­surrounding the President’s decision to sack Mr Comey at a time when he was overseeing the FBI’s probe into Russia’s interference in the US election and its links to the Trump campaign team.

Mr Trump said initially that Mr Comey was sacked because of his handling of the Clinton email controversy but he later admitted that when he fired him he was thinking about “this Russia thing”.

The President also learned at that time that Mr Mueller wanted to examine Mr Comey’s claim that during a meeting with the Mr Trump, the President pressured him to drop the FBI’s investigation into the recently sacked national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Both of these events had the potential for the President to be accused of trying to obstruct ­justice, an accusation that could potentially lead to impeachment.

In recent months, Mr Trump has been careful and respectful of Mr Mueller in his public comments, saying he expected him to be “fair” in his investigation.

Mr Mueller is seeking to interview Mr Trump in the coming weeks.

Mr Trump said this week he was “looking forward” to speaking to Mr Mueller under oath ­because he had not been involved in any collusion with Russia or ­obstruction of justice.