WASHINGTON — President Trump echoed his rant against Robert Mueller on Tuesday, claiming a "witch hunt" over Russia has violated his attorney-client privilege and raising more questions about whether the president will seek to remove the special counsel.
"Attorney-client privilege is dead!" Trump said during an early morning tweet session.
Trump — who is also deciding on a military strike on Syria over a chemical weapons attack — tweeted the morning after he broached the subject of having Mueller removed because of a raid on the home and office of personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Saying "they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys," Trump called it "a disgraceful situation" and "a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time."
Speaking before a meeting with his military advisers about Syria and other national defense matters, Trump called the Mueller investigation "an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for."
Asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump told reporters that "we’ll see what happens," and "many people have said you should fire him."
Congressional Democrats and Republicans have urged Trump not to take such a step and to let the investigation run its course.
“The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told CNN that Trump's tweets and attacks are not "helpful at all," and "I think we'll get ultimate answers when this (investigation) is done."
He also said the probe is "not an attack on our country."
Technically, Trump could not fire Mueller himself. He would have to direct Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to do so. Rosenstein, also attacked by Trump during his rant at the White House, has said he has seen no reason to remove Mueller.
Mueller's office and Justice Department officials have not commented publicly on the Cohen search warrant, and people beyond those offices do not know exactly what agents were looking for.
Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said the U.S. Attorney's office in New York City supervised the raid, based at least in part on a referral from Mueller's office. Ryan denounced an "unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients," but did not specify the documents that were taken.
A judge must sign off on a search warrant, and an application must have high-level approval from the Justice Department -- with additional requirements when the target is an attorney. Legal analysts have said that probable cause can be ground to breach the attorney-client relationship.
Ryan said his client has cooperated with the Mueller inquiry, which centers on possible links between Trump campaign associates and Russians who sought to influence the 2016 election through email hacks and fake news.
Mueller is also investigating whether Trump or others sought to obstruct the Russia investigation, including the 2017 decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey.
In addition, Cohen has acknowledged paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket shortly before the 2016 election. Campaign finance groups have said that payment may have violated federal law.
In his Monday evening remarks at the White House, Trump said Mueller's has a pro-Democratic bias, and has found no evidence of wrongdoing involving Russians.
"So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, 'well, let’s keep going,'” Trump said. "And they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it’s a disgrace."
