White House says Trump has ‘no intention’ to fire Mueller

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that President Donald Trump has “no intention or plan” to fire Robert Mueller from his role leading the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference, just hours after the first charges stemming from the probe were unsealed.

"The president said last week ... there’s no intention or plan to make any changes in regard to the special counsel," Sanders said during a press briefing on Monday.


Earlier Monday Mueller’s former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, another former top Trump campaign official, were indicted on 12 charges including money laundering and failure to disclose their work as foreign agents. The charges marked the first indictment connected to Mueller’s sprawling probe.

It was later revealed on Monday that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, had pleaded guilty to charges of lying to federal investigators regarding his communications with Russia-linked contacts, including promises of "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

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Despite the intensification of the investigation, Sanders said Monday the White House still expected Mueller’s probe to wrap up shortly.

“We still expect this to conclude soon,” Sanders said.

Pressed on whether the Trump administration had been given any official indication that the probe would soon be ending, Sanders declined to offer further explanation, saying, “Those are the indications that we have at this time."

Addressing the plea, Sanders called Papadopoulos' role with the Trump campaign "extremely limited," noting that it was a "volunteer position" and claiming that none of his actions were done in an "official capacity" for the campaign.

Sanders also cast Papadopoulos' attempts to establish a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, the details of which were revealed in his guilty plea, as insignificant.

“He reached out and nothing happened beyond that which I think shows, one, his level of importance on the campaign, and two, shows what little role he had within coordinating anything officially for the campaign," Sanders said.

Despite Sanders’ claims, court records show that Papadopoulos was praised for his communications with two Russian-linked officials, with one “Campaign Supervisor” telling him he did “great work” following an attempt to establish a summit between the Trump team and Russian operatives. The supervisor also told Papadopoulos they would "work it through the campaign," but the meeting ultimately did not happen.

A supervisor later encouraged Papadopoulos to "make the trip, if it is feasible,” to meet with Russian officials, documents show.

Sanders also cast Manafort’s activities as being unrelated to the Trump campaign.

“It has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign,” she said. “It has to do with his failure to tell the truth.”