As President Donald Trump continues to rail against the FBI’s raid of his attorney Michael Cohen’s office, calling it an “attack on our country” and claiming it violates attorney-client privilege, a prominent Republican lawmaker came to the defense of Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his referral that led to the search warrants.

“Let’s start with the FBI raid on the home, the hotel, and the offices of president Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen which raises obvious questions about possible violation of attorney/client privilege,” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). “As a former federal prosecutor, are you convinced that this raid was appropriate or at least on its face not inappropriate?”

Gowdy, who recently announced he will not seek re-election this year, said that a neutral magistrate had to sign off on the search warrant and that it also required the highest levels of the Justice Department to sign off on seizing attorney/client records. The South Carolina lawmaker added that this appears to also show that it has nothing to do with Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling, otherwise the special counsel wouldn’t have referred it.

Wallace highlighted Trump’s furious reaction to the raid and that the president suggested that he could be open to firing Mueller. The Fox News anchor then asked Gowdy if he felt it would be a serious mistake if the president terminated Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“Let me take Mueller first,” the Republican congressman responded. “I don’t know what Mueller was supposed to do other than what he did. When a prosecutor comes in contact with information or evidence of a crime, what are you supposed to do other than to refer it to the appropriate jurisdiction?”

He continued, “Now, if Mueller had kept something unrelated for himself I’d say fine, you can criticize him. But he came in contact with potential criminality. He referred it to the U.S. Attorney’s office of jurisdiction and did so with the permission of rod Rosenstein. I don’t know what he could do.”

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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