President Trump, in a tweet Monday morning, said that the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller was “totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL.” His claim runs contrary to a federal judge’s ruling in Washington, D.C. that upheld Mueller’s appointment and his authority to prosecute Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The appointment of the Special Councel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018
Trump misspelled the word “counsel” in his initial tweet, but corrected it in a version he sent about an hour later.
The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018
Earlier Monday morning, Trump claimed he had the ability to pardon himself — a legal question that is more open to debate than the President’s tweet suggested.
Manafort had brought two legal challenges to the scope of Mueller’s power, alleging that the appointment order was too broad because it allowed him to prosecute “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” and that he was operating outside his authority in going after Manafort’s lobbying work in Ukraine that predated the 2016 election.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a private lawsuit Manafort brought challenging Mueller’s authority and declined to throw out the criminal case when Manafort brought a similar argument there.
