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FROM EIR DAILY ALERT


Former Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr Acknowledges ‘Trump Can Fire Mueller’

Jan. 29, 2018 (EIRNS)—Speaking this morning on “Fox and Friends,” Clinton-era special prosecutor Kenneth Starr was clear: The President has the constitutional authority to fire “Special Counsel” Robert Mueller. Perhaps not as passionate in his defense of the Constitution as Alan Dershowitz (who defended Trump’s authority several weeks ago), being a former special prosecutor himself, Starr’s words have specific weight.

“The President has very broad powers,” Starr said.

“Article II of the Constitution of the United States vests the executive power in the President. We have elected the President, he has all this power.”

Trump is “at liberty” he continued, to fire the special counsel on such simple grounds as “I think this guy is not doing a good job or it is interfering with my conduct of the Presidency.”

If Congress “doesn’t like that,” he said, “they can step in and call you to account” through impeachment. He also reacted to recent reports from the Jan. 28 Sunday New York Times, that Trump ordered the firing of Mueller back in June but reneged after White House Counsel Don McGahn threatened to quit.

“Everybody says, oh, my goodness, this is Armageddon,” Starr opined. He specified as a key point, the fact that “the President followed—according to these reports—the advice of the counsel.”

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