In an email to The Daily Beast on Saturday following Attorney General Jeff Sessions' late-night firing of former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, John Dowd—President Donald Trump's personal lawyer—called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to "bring an end to [the] alleged Russia collusion investigation" being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"I pray that Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe's boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier," Dowd wrote.
Initially, Dowd told The Daily Beast that, in making this call, he was speaking on behalf of Trump "as his counsel," but later walked this claim back.
"After publication of this story...Dowd emailed to say he was actually speaking in his personal capacity, and not on the president’s behalf," noted The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff.
Commentators reacted to Dowd's remarks with alarm on Twitter, and some lawmakers issued calls for Congress to do everything in its power to protect Mueller's probe.
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Here it is, the point all of the attacks on law enforcement by Trump, Nunes, Fox News and the rest have been inevitably building to. Red alert time. https://t.co/httpljrSYA
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 17, 2018
Statement of Andrew McCabe & the public reporting suggest the issue was that McCabe allegedly gave info to press that damaged Clinton campaign.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 17, 2018
That has nothing to do with the Mueller investigation of @realDonaldTrump. John Dowd is showing desperation with his statement below. https://t.co/iOMlW7iWK0
If you didn’t see this coming, you’ve been asleep for the past year and two months https://t.co/wxryujQOSX
— Sulome Anderson (@SulomeAnderson) March 17, 2018
