Richard Painter, who served as George W. Bush's White House ethics lawyer, said the key to special counsel Robert Mueller's probe will be deciding why President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
Painter made his comments during a panel discussion on MSNBC on Wednesday.
He said it would be obstruction of justice if Trump fired Comey to stop the Russia investigation, the HuffPost reported.
"The president once again has the right to fire the FBI director," Painter said. "But not the right to fire the FBI director in order to obstruct an ongoing investigation of the collaboration with the Russians."
Mueller has asked the White House for documents relating to the firing of Comey, The New York Times reported.
Meanwhile, Painter maintained, there was clearly collaboration with the Russians.
"And there's obviously collaboration," he said. "They've got to stop denying that. The only question is whether it was illegal collaboration. But the obstruction of justice and the lying ultimately may be what puts an end to this White House. They are in serious trouble on this."
He said the 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr. and others is troubling.
"There was collaboration," he said. "And after that meeting there was an effort to mischaracterize that meeting — to lie to the press what was going on at the meeting."
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