Washington: US President Donald Trump ordered the sacking last June of Robert Mueller, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.

The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Trump is known to have tried to dismiss the special counsel. Mueller learnt about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller Credit:NYT

Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the President began to argue that Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.

First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, had prompted Mueller, the FBI director at the time, to resign his membership. The President also said Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the President said, Mueller had been interviewed to return as the FBI director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.