In a move that could signal an escalation of Republican resistance to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 general election, three House Republicans called on Friday for Mueller to resign. Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), who are members of the House Judiciary Committee which oversees the FBI and the Department of Justice, introduced a non-binding measure demanding Mueller’s resignation. They claimed an “obvious conflict of interest.”
The Republicans insisted that Mueller was unfit to lead the Trump-Russia collusion probe due to an “obvious conflict of interest” arising from his relationship with the former FBI director James Comey, according to Politico . They also alleged a conflict of interest due to the fact that Mueller was the director of the FBI at the time that the administration of President Barack Obama approved the deal for the sale of Uranium One to the Russians, Reuters reported .
“[B]e it Resolved, That House of Representatives expresses its sense that Robert Mueller is compromised and should resign from his special counsel position immediately.”
Gaetz had called in the past for an investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s alleged involvement in the sale of Uranium One to a Russian company, and he was not the first to make the call. The call by Republicans for an investigation of the Uranium One deal intensified after Mueller issued the first indictments of former Trump aides on Monday.
Mueller issued money-laundering indictments against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, and his deputy, Rick Gates. Mueller is also looking into whether President Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey as the FBI director while the Bureau was investigating the allegations of Russian interference in the general election. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein later appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Soon after Mueller’s first indictments were made public on Monday, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Uranium deal. Several other Republicans, including Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced they were starting an investigation into Clinton’s role in the deal.
President Donald Trump also called for an investigation of Clinton over the Uranium deal. He added that the Department of Justice should investigate the Democrats for “violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering.”
“This is real collusion and dishonesty… major violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering. [W]here is our Justice Department?”
However, Democrats have dismissed the calls for investigation of the Uranium One deal and the alleged violation of campaign finance laws, saying that the calls were intended to distract attention from Mueller’s Trump-Russia collusion investigation.
Trump, for his part, has consistently denied allegations that he colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 general election. He has described the allegations as “fake news,” and Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt.”
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]