Judicial Watch obtains email saying Robert Mueller withdrew as candidate for top FBI slot

Mueller has previously testified before congress that he did not apply for the position of FBI director.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a May 17, 2017 email apparently indicated that Robert Mueller had withdrawn from being considered as a candidate for the position of FBI director. Rosenstein in the email obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act suit wrote, "Withdrew from consideration for FBI director." The email included the subject heading, "Mueller," according to Judicial Watch. The date of the email, May 17, 2017, is also the day that it was announced Mueller would serve as special counsel for the Russia investigation. Mueller on the day prior, May 16, 2017, met with the president, but has said that he never interviewed to secure the FBI director position. According to a transcript of testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in July 2019, Mueller denied having interviewed for the job. Portions of the transcript read as follows.

STEUBE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Mueller, over here. Mr. Mueller did you indeed interview for the FBI director job one day before you were appointed as Special Counsel? MUELLER: My understanding I was not applying for that job, I was asked to give my input on what it would take to do the job, which triggered the interview you’re talking about. STEUBE: So you don’t recall on May 16th, 2017 that you interviewed with the president regarding the FBI director job? MUELLER: I interviewed with the president and it was about… STEUBE: Regarding the FBI director job? MUELLER: …it was about the job and not about me applying for the job. STEUBE: So your statement here today is that you didn’t interview to apply for the FBI director job? MUELLER: That’s correct

President Trump has asserted that Mueller did interview for the position of FBI director. "It has been reported that Robert Mueller is saying that he did not apply and interview for the job of FBI Director (and get turned down) the day before he was wrongfully appointed Special Counsel," Trump tweeted. "Hope he doesn’t say that under oath in that we have numerous witnesses to the interview, including the Vice President of the United States!"

https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/judicial-watch-obtains-email-indicating-robert-mueller-withdrew-fbi

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/appointment-special-counsel

On-the-record sources, paper trail rebut anonymous claims Trump disrespected American war dead

A growing list of senior officials traveling with President Trump in 2018 as well as official Navy documents rebut "The Atlantic" magazine's anonymously sourced claims about a canceled presidential visit to an American World War I cemetery in France.

A growing list of government heavyweights traveling with President Trump in 2018 as well as official Navy documents rebut "The Atlantic" magazine's anonymously sourced claims about President Trump skipping a visit to an American military cemetery in France. The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published an article Thursday claiming that Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery after calling dead soldiers "losers" and "suckers" for getting killed. "Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day," Golberg wrote. "[H]e blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that 'the helicopter couldn't fly' and that the Secret Service wouldn't drive him there. Neither claim was true."

However, government documents obtained in a FOIA request by BuzzFeed shows the Navy canceled the troop cemetery visit due to rain. "Regarding the lede of this story: I obtained documents from the Navy via #FOIA about Trump's 2018 trip to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris and the documents say his transport was canceled by the Navy due to rain," Jason Leopold, a senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed, tweeted while linking to documents showing military officials refusing to support a helicopter flight due to inclement weather. After his article was published, Goldberg himself even admitted he believed the President's account of why the cemetery trip was nixed. "I'm sure all of those things are true," Goldberg told CNN in an interview with CNN's "New Day" on Friday after he was asked about an account from John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser. Bolton wrote in his recent book "The Room Where it Happened" (which is otherwise highly critical of Trump) about the helicopter trip being cancelled due to rain and the ground transportation options being curtailed due to traffic constraints that would be placed on the French people. Goldberg did not respond to requests for comment from Just the News. An automated email response to a Just the News reporter from his email account stated that he was unable to respond to all requests due to volume. "I didn't hear either of those comments or anything even resembling them," Bolton told John Roberts of Fox News. "I was there at the point in time that morning when it was decided that he would not go Aisne-Marne cemetery. He decided not to do it because of John Kelly's recommendation. It was entirely a weather-related decision, and I thought the proper thing to do." Bolton belongs to a much longer list of current and former government officials, many of whom were with the president at the time, who have now spoken out on the record either to factually refute The Atlantic's claims or attest that they are wildly out of character.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/government-heavyweights-traveling-trump-2018-and-navy-foia-documents-rebut

https://twitter.com/JasonLeopold/status/1301673157699407873