2016 ELECTION/INTELLIGENCE/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s options are limited for ending the Russia probe he so wants to see over…
Despite Trump’s desire to cut the Russia investigations short — and pressure from some allies to do so — the president and his advisers are quickly coming to the realization there isn’t much he can do to derail it. And on Tuesday, several of the president’s top aides did their best to signal that Trump would be staying out of Mueller’s way.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave reporters a flat ‘no’ during her daily briefing when asked whether the president would take aim at Mueller’s budget, as former White House strategist Steve Bannon has suggested.
Trump earlier this year fumed over the Mueller appointment and, citing concerns over potential conflicts of interest for both the special counsel and the attorneys he hired, the president even flirted with the idea of firing him.
But White House attorney Ty Cobb, personal attorneys John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, and White House chief of staff John Kelly have since coached the president to pull back from making explicit, direct attacks against Mueller…
For now, Mueller’s spending appears to be safe. His funds are drawn from a permanent Treasury Department account that isn’t subject to the annual appropriations process. It’s also controlled through an internal Justice Department audit, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has final authority to approve the special counsel’s spending plans.”
-Darren Samuelsohn and Kyle Cheney, “White House signals Trump will stay out of Mueller’s way,” Politico, Nov. 1, 2017 05:15am