Trump Believes He Can Fire Special Counsel Mueller

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump thinks he has an authority to dismiss Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating potential collusion between his campaign and Russia, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a briefing on Tuesday.

When asked whether Trump thinks he can fire Mueller, Sanders said, "He certainly believes he has the power to do so."

During a meeting at the White House on Monday night, Trump told reporters, "Why don't I fire Mueller? Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens."

The president's comments came just hours after news that FBI agents had raided the home and office of Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Earlier, the FBI agents have raided the office of President Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, to seize privileged information based on a referral from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan said in a statement.

The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, said the FBI seized records related to a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. The payment was reportedly provided in exchange for not disclosing details related to her relationship with Trump.

Meanwhile, US Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump should avoid creating a constitutional crisis by removing Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from their positions.

"Any attempt to remove Rod Rosenstein will create the exact same constitutional crisis as firing Counsel Mueller," Schumer told reporters, urging Trump to refrain from impeding the Russia investigation. Schumer also called on Republicans to join Democrats in drafting legislation to protect Mueller.

"With a few words last night, President Trump made it frighteningly clear that he may be considering firing Special Counsel Mueller. Our Republican colleagues must not continue ignoring the elephant in the room. We Democrats are urging our Republican colleagues to work with us now, pass legislation to protect this investigation [on Russia] and head off a constitutional crisis that would be devastating to this country," he said.

Mueller is probing accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations that it interfered in the vote, calling the allegations completely groundless.