Solicitor General Noel Francisco would become the man who could fire Robert Mueller if President Donald Trump does indeed to decide to axe his deputy attorney general, Politico reports.
Francisco, a Trump political appointee, is next in line after deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because the No. 3 spot in the Justice Department is currently vacant; associate Attorney General Rachel Brand departed in February.
And like Trump, Francisco is not a fan of the FBI nor of its ex-director James Comey, Politico reports. Francisco successfully accused Comey — then director — and the FBI of overreach in his 2016 defense of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell for a corruption conviction.
He even railed against Comey and the FBI in a column he wrote a month before the 2016 election.
However, that doesn't make it a fait accompli that Francisco would fire Mueller if put in the position to do so, a friend of his told Politico.
"I don't think Francisco would fire [Mueller]," Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior counsel for the Clinton Whitewater special prosecutor, told Politico. "You don't get to be a guy like that by being somebody's tool."
Francisco was confirmed as solicitor general 50-47 in September.