Protests planned across US if Trump fires Mueller

A series of progressive groups are organizing protests across the United States in the event that US President Donald Trump decides to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

About two dozen groups have made plans to launch an immediate response and hold demonstrations in hundreds of American cities if Trump fires Mueller, The Washington Post reported on Monday.  

More than 140,000 people have shown willingness to start protesting within hours should Trump fire the man who has charged two former top aides of the president -- former national security adviser and close confidant Michael Flynn and Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen, an environmental and government reform organization based in Washington, said, “It’s pretty rare that people would commit to mobilize around something that we don’t even know will happen, so it shows the energy and passion out there.”

“The reaction will be swift,” Gilbert added.

Organizers are urging Americans to sign up to protest at TrumpIsNotAboveTheLaw.org, which says it would be a "constitutional crisis" if the president fires the special counsel and would "demand an immediate and unequivocal response to show that we will not tolerate abuse of power from Donald Trump."

There has been speculation that Trump is planning to fire Mueller after he reportedly obtained "many tens of thousands" of private emails from his transition team, as part of the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia. Trump, however, has said he will not fire Mueller.

Mueller is reportedly using the trove to confirm existing information and open up new leads in his widening inquiry.

PressTV-Trump denies plan to fire head of Russia probe

President Trump says he will not fire Special Counsel Mueller although his transition team is upset over Mueller’s probing of their emails.

The emails include conversations about sensitive topics, such as policy planning, potential appointments and the political views of senators involved in the confirmation process.

A lawyer for Trump’s transition team, Kory Langhofer, claimed Mueller has obtained the emails unlawfully.

The emails in question could shed light on critical events during the transition period last year, which have now become the focus of the Russia investigation.

Some of the emails belong to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who is now his senior adviser.

They reportedly include Kushner’s meeting with a Russian banker with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as a meeting between Kushner and the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, which was also attended by Flynn.

Investigators could use the emails to connect the dots on the events pertaining to Flynn's conversations with Kislyak — which he would later mislead FBI agents about during a January 24 interview.

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