Schumer: ‘Severe consequences’ if Trump moves to shut down Mueller probe

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday warned of “severe consequences” if President Trump moves to shut down the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Schumer cited comments by Trump’s personal attorney John Dowd on Saturday asking the deputy attorney general to “bring an end” to the “fraudulent” investigation he claimed was constructed to undermine the president. 

“The president, the administration, and his legal team must not take any steps to curtail, interfere with, or end the special counsel’s investigation or there will be severe consequences from both Democrats and Republicans,” Schumer said in a statement.

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Dowd called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to follow the “courageous example” of the FBI’s internal watchdog that recommended former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe be fired. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced McCabe’s firing on Friday.

The Trump attorney said in a statement obtained by The Hill that Rosenstein should “bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss [former FBI Director] James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier.”

Schumer, who has defended special counsel Robert Mueller against Trump’s insistence that the federal probe is a “witch hunt,” said Dowd’s statement was “yet another indication that the first instinct of the president and his legal team is not to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but to undermine him at every turn.” 

The top Senate Democrat previously called for Congress to unite in protecting Mueller from dismissal after it was reported Trump had once ordered the special counsel to be fired.