Top House Intelligence Committee Democrat Adam Schiff said Wednesday that any report by Russia special counsel Robert Mueller might not "see the light of day" if President Donald Trump fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"Any replacement of Rod Rosenstein could secretly cripple the Mueller investigation by telling Mueller you can't follow the money and can't investigate this or you need to wrap up that," the nine-term California representative told Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
"This is really lost, but Rod Rosenstein will make the decision on whether a report from Bob Mueller ever sees the light of day.
"Whether it is ever submitted to Congress for consideration of whether the president's conduct violated the law and might rise to level of an impeachable offense or whether it is even presented to the Congress.
"That is a very important — maybe the most important decision," Schiff said.
CNN reported Tuesday that President Trump was considering firing Rosenstein — and The New York Times disclosed that the president tried to dismiss Mueller in December after he had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records on Trump's finances.
Schiff explained that Rosenstein would eventually decide what to do with any report that Mueller files on the Russia probe.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, to the post last year after President Trump fired James Comey.
"People need to understand it is not Bob Mueller's job to tell the country what happens," he told Blitzer. "It is his job to decide who should be prosecuted and who has violated the law.
"But if the special counsel decides that the president has violated the law, and that it is not appropriate for him to seek an indictment of a sitting president, Bob Mueller would make a report to Rod Rosenstein — and Rod Rosenstein would decide what to do with it.
"Is that report made public?" Schiff posed. "Is that report provided to Congress?
"You get rid of Rod Rosenstein and who knows what happens to that report," he said. "That is a deep concern to me.
"I would view the firing of Rosenstein as every bit as much an act of obstruction as anything else the president could do."
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