Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

White House Spokesman, Trump Legal Aide Quit | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55379307
Caption:

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is leading the US probe into whether President Donald Trump’s associates colluded with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is leading the US probe into whether President Donald Trump’s associates colluded with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)


White House Spokesman Sean Spicer and a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team resigned Friday in a one-two punch to a reeling administration, as pressure mounts from a broadening investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Spicer resigned in opposition to Trump’s naming of Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and longtime supporter of the billionaire investor-turned-president, as the new White House communications director, a White House official told AFP.

Mark Corallo, who coordinated the Trump legal team’s public response to the crisis over a probe into possible campaign collusion with Moscow, also stepped down, according to an email he sent to AFP.

Spicer’s press briefings — often combative affairs with White House reporters — became increasingly infrequent in recent months, with deputy spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders stepping in to address journalists, often in off-camera briefings.

Sanders however was due to go in front of the cameras later Friday.

Spicer’s departure dramatically escalates the tensions within the administration over the direction the investigation is taking, and how the White House is responding.

No reason was given for Corallo’s departure, and Spicer so far has remained publicly silent. But the moves come after Trump waded into potentially perilous legal territory by warning investigators not to look into his family finances.

In an expansive interview with The New York Times earlier this week, Trump appeared to make that a red line for special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller is examining whether Trump or his aides colluded with Russia’s apparent efforts to help tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but has struggled to explain why his eldest son and key aides met Russian operatives who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.