President Donald Trump has no legal authority to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Tuesday.
Schumer said during a Senate floor speech that lawmakers need to pass bipartisan legislation to protect Mueller from being dismissed by Trump.
A short time later, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump "certainly believes he has the power to" fire Mueller.
The back and forth continued with an emailed statement from Schumer's office that cited this section in the Code of Federal Regulations:
"The Special Counsel may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General. The Attorney General may remove a Special Counsel for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies. The Attorney General shall inform the Special Counsel in writing of the specific reason for his or her removal."
Schumer spokesman Matt House then strongly pushed back on Sanders' claim of Trump having the legal right to dismiss the special counsel.
"The DOJ regulations could not be more clear; the president does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Mueller," House said. "Because of the Attorney General’s recusal, only Deputy Attorney General [Rod] Rosenstein could remove the special counsel, and it would have to be for good cause."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe last year because he played a role on Trump's campaign while he was a senator.
During his speech on the Senate floor that lasted more than 12 minutes, Schumer walked through Trump's insistence the Russia investigation is a witch hunt and he might be thinking about firing Mueller and ending the special counsel investigation.
"Let us take steps to protect the special counsel from political interference," Schumer said. "We have several bipartisan bills designed to do just that. Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell should bring them to the floor and let us debate them very soon."
FBI agents raided two offices, a home, and a hotel room tied to Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Monday. Cohen is reportedly under investigation for bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations.
Trump was visibly angry about the raid when he addressed the media Monday evening and raised the possibility of firing Mueller.
"Law enforcement officers believe there's a good chance that the attorney for the president committed a crime or was involved in fraud, or they couldn't have gotten the OK from the magistrate to make these seizures," Schumer said Tuesday.
"In this country, no man is above the law. Not even the president. Mr. president, your comments were the disgrace."
Schumer called on Congress to push back on Trump's criticisms of Mueller in a bipartisan effort to ensure the investigation — which began last spring over allegations the Trump campaign might have colluded with Russia — continues.
"This Congress must respond forcefully and on a bipartisan basis by reaffirming our belief that the president cannot fire a special counsel without cause and by passing legislation to ensure that any attempts to remove Robert Mueller would be unsuccessful," Schumer said. "We should not abide the president's attempt at assault on the rule of law in America. The eyes of history are upon us."
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