A sense of foreboding has settled over congressional Democrats, who fear that GOP lawmakers, the White House and conservative media figures are orchestrating a messaging campaign with one logical goal: the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller by President Donald Trump.

A Republican offensive seemingly aimed at discrediting some of the top agents working with Mueller has intensified amid signs his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election has crept closer to Trump's inner circle.


Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally, described the FBI on Saturday as a "crime family" and said some of the agents involved in the Russia probe should be jailed. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who joined her show, called her comments "perfect." Fox News ran a banner that day questioning whether the probe amounted to “A Coup in America?”

Also on Saturday, the second-highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn, called for Mueller to "clean house of partisans." The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has trumpeted news that two former members of Mueller's team traded anti-Trump text messages.

Trump himself has picked up on the claims of bias in Mueller's investigation. Earlier this month, he flew on Air Force One with two Florida Republicans who are Congress' loudest Mueller critics, Reps. Matt Gaetz and Ron DeSantis. Gaetz told POLITICO he told Trump during that trip that Mueller's probe had become "infected with bias."

"How they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it," Trump told reporters of the Mueller probe on Friday. "It’s a very sad thing to watch."

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The White House has maintained there’s no discussion about firing Mueller. "There's no conversation about that in the White House whatsoever," Marc Short, Trump’s top liaison to Congress, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. Trump, asked by reporters later in the day if he was considering firing Mueller, said he wasn't.

But while Republican leaders still profess respect for Mueller — a former FBI director in Republican and Democratic administrations — they've largely stayed silent as rank-and-file members claim the probe is biased. And Senate Republicans who eyed legislation to prevent Trump from abruptly firing Mueller still say they feel no sense of urgency, despite the anti-special counsel clamor on the right.

All that has Democrats viewing the situation in near-apocalyptic terms.

"From the White House on down, they're deliberately trying to discredit every institution that we depend on ... for justice and to maintain the democratic form of government, anybody that may be a threat to their power," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a recent interview. "That's very anti-democratic."

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who represents a pro-Trump state and is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he's not buying the recent attacks on Mueller. "I do not at all believe that Mr. Mueller has been compromised or his investigation. I think he's beyond reproach," he said on "Meet The Press" on Sunday.

Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation in May after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, has so far indicted two former campaign aides and obtained guilty pleas from others, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who admitted to lying to investigators about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador during the presidential transition.

Trump has long claimed the probe is a “witch hunt” and an excuse by Democrats for their loss in the 2016 election. But while many Republicans remained quiet or expressed support for Mueller in the early months, the news that the special counsel removed two team members — Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — over the summer for trading anti-Trump text messages piqued their frustration.



The Department of Justice provided a batch of those text messages to lawmakers last week. They include a slew of texts hostile toward Trump but that also contain vitriol directed toward other political figures in both parties.

Trump allies also erupted this weekend after a lawyer from the transition team suggested Mueller had inappropriately accessed thousands of transition emails that were housed on government servers. Legal scholars cast doubt on the complaint, saying it is unlikely Mueller broke any rules in obtaining the emails, but pundits aligned with Trump still argued the incident showed the probe might be tainted.

"It’s not looking good," Trump said Sunday of the dust-up, adding that he didn't think Mueller would find much in the transition emails because there was "no collusion."

"My people are very upset about it," he said. "A lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad.”

In Congress, Republicans leading a House Intelligence Committee investigation of the Russian cyber threat — and whether Trump allies aided the 2016 attacks — have quickened their pace and may conclude the bulk of their work this month. Members of the panel say they're likely to wrap up nearly all of their witness interviews next week.

Republicans say they've been probing the matter for nearly a year with no conclusive evidence of "collusion" between Trump allies and Russia to undermine the election, and Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who's leading the probe, has said he's eager to turn his focus toward writing a farm bill in his other role as chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

Their push to wrap up has drawn howls from Democrats, however, who claim that GOP committee members have left important questions unanswered, refused to subpoena witnesses who stonewall and failed to call dozens of figures who might have information.

At the top of their list of complaints is that Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., invoked attorney-client privilege to avoid answering a question about a conversation with his father after the New York Times reported on a secret June 2016 meeting between the younger Trump and Kremlin-connected associates in Trump Tower. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, argued to reporters that Trump Jr. can't claim attorney-client privilege to shield talks with his father.

Conaway told POLITICO Wednesday he was waiting to hear back from Trump Jr.'s legal team about how they justify their claim of attorney-client privilege.

Schiff has also vented about committee leaders' decision to hold to key witness interviews this week away from Washington even though Congress is in session, meaning staff members will likely travel to conduct the meetings and that lawmakers will not participate.

Separately, Republicans on the House Judiciary ommittee have spent the past two weeks highlighting claims that top members of Mueller's team are biased against Trump, pointing first to political donations given by some of his prosecutors to Democrats and then to the anti-Trump text messages from two team members.

Democrats on the committee say there's no evidence Strzok or Page acted on their hostility toward Trump to taint the investigation. But Jordan, a member of the committee, said late Saturday he'd secured a commitment from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the panel’s chairman, to subpoena Strzok and other top FBI officials. Goodlatte aides declined to comment.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) summed up her party’s view of Republican pushback against the probe in a local TV appearance on Friday.

"This is a circus at this point," Speier said. "I believe that the president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller."

Speier related what she called a "rumor" that Trump might fire Mueller as soon as Congress leaves town for the holidays this Friday, even though the White House has not indicated that would happen.

Schiff issued a similar warning.

"By shutting down the congressional investigations when they continue to discover new and important evidence, the White House can exert tremendous pressure to end or curtail Mueller’s investigation or cast doubt on it," the Californian said in a Friday tweet. "We cannot let that happen."

