President Trump's friend, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, started a media storm Monday evening when he told PBS's Judy Woodruff that Trump was "considering perhaps terminating the special counsel" Robert Mueller, who is overseeing the Russia investigation. 
 
 "I think he's weighing that option," Ruddy said. 
 
 Between the lines: Ruddy never actually spoke to Trump about firing Mueller, a source close to Ruddy tells me, but was reading between the lines of what others had said. Indeed, Ruddy referred to comments from Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's lawyers, who didn't rule out that Trump might fire Mueller in an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week." 
 
 Sean Spicer confirmed Trump hadn't discussed the matter with Ruddy: "Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the President regarding this issue. With respect to this subject, only the President or his attorneys are authorized to comment." ||||| Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Tuesday said he has not seen good cause to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference. 
 
 Rosenstein clarified at a Senate Appropriations Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee hearing that he, and not Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsBudowsky: Senate must protect Mueller from Barr, President Trump Feinstein grappling with vote on AG nominee Barr Central American women fleeing domestic violence deserve refugee status MORE, has the authority to hire and fire Mueller. 
 
 “Have you seen good cause for firing Mueller?” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Cynthia (Jeanne) Jeanne ShaheenGOP reasserts NATO support after report on Trump’s wavering Some Senate Dems see Ocasio-Cortez as weak spokeswoman for party The Hill's Morning Report — Trump eyes wall money options as shutdown hits 21 days MORE (D-N.H.) asked Rosenstein. 
 
 “I have not,” he replied. 
 
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 Rosenstein added he is confident Mueller will have sufficient independence in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia. 
 
 Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsCentrist efforts to convince Trump to end shutdown falter On The Money: Shutdown Day 26 | Pelosi calls on Trump to delay State of the Union | Cites 'security concerns' | DHS chief says they can handle security | Waters lays out agenda | Senate rejects effort to block Trump on Russia sanctions Senators look for possible way to end shutdown MORE (R-Maine) further pressed him on reports that the administration is considering firing Mueller, asking whether he would if President Trump ordered him to do so. 
 
 “I am not going to follow any orders unless I believe those are lawful and appropriate,” Rosenstein said, explaining that under federal regulations, Mueller can only be fired for good cause and that reason would have to be put in writing. 
 
 Democrats slammed Sessions on Tuesday for canceling plans to testify at the hearing and sending Rosenstein in his place. 
 
 “You are not the witness we were supposed to hear from today,” Sen. Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahyGOP insiders knock their depictions in new Dick Cheney biopic ‘Vice’ Barr: It would be a crime for president to pardon someone in exchange for their silence Barr says Trump won't be allowed to 'correct' Mueller report MORE (D-Vt.) said. “You are not the witness that was supposed to be behind the table.” ||||| Sessions never should've recused himself. Now that we know TRUMP IS NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION, Sessions should take it back & fire Mueller. ||||| Robert Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department last month to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. | Getty Trump attorney won't rule out firing Mueller 
 
 One of President Donald Trump’s attorneys on Sunday wouldn't rule out the possibility the president would fire the special counsel appointed to look into his campaign’s potential ties to Russia. 
 
 Robert Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department last month to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. And on Sunday, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Trump attorney Jay Sekulow whether the president would pledge not to interfere or order the attorney general to fire Mueller. 
 
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 “Look, the president of the United States, as we all know, is a unitary executive,” Sekulow said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But the president is going to seek the advice of his counsel and inside the government as well as outside. And I'm not going to speculate on what he will, or will not, do.” 
 
 Sekulow said he “can’t imagine” the issue would arise, but “that, again, is an issue that the president with his advisers would discuss if there was a basis.” ||||| Donald Trump is considering dismissing the special counsel assigned to the Russia investigation, a confidant said on Monday. 
 
 Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy told PBS Newshour that Trump is “considering perhaps terminating” Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who was appointed to run the investigation into Russian influence on the campaign by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17. 
 
 Asked later if Trump is really considering firing Mueller, Ruddy said: “Yes.” 
 
 A White House official told me that “Chris was speaking for himself and did not speak to the president.” Later on Monday night, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer issued a statement reading, “Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the president regarding this issue. With respect to this subject, only the president or his attorneys are authorized to comment.” 
 
 CNBC’s Washington correspondent tweeted that she had seen Ruddy leaving the West Wing earlier on Monday afternoon; NBC later reported that he was there for a meeting with the president that was postponed. Ruddy told NPR they spoke on Friday. 
 
 Ruddy, a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, has often seemed to float trial balloons related to moves Trump is considering making. In February, after having a drink the night before with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Ruddy criticized White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on CNN, saying "I think Reince Priebus, good guy, well-intentioned, but he clearly doesn't know how the federal agencies work.” ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.
– Christopher Ruddy is seen as a confidante of President Trump, so his assertion on PBS on Monday that Trump might fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller is drawing a lot of attention. It wasn't exactly a firm statement, with the Newsmax CEO saying that Trump is "considering perhaps terminating" Mueller, who is looking into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He added: "I think he's weighing that option." That prompted a quick response from White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who said that Ruddy "never spoke to the president regarding this issue" and that "only the president or his attorneys are authorized to comment.” Related coverage: Who's Ruddy? The Los Angeles Times has a quick bio of the longtime Trump pal that explains why he's generally a reliable gauge on what Trump is thinking. Trial balloon? That Atlantic speculates that Ruddy could be deliberately floating the idea to see how it flies, noting that he's done so previously with, among other things, statements in regard to Reince Priebus. 'Explosive': The New York Times says firing Mueller would be "politically explosive" given Trump's recent firing of James Comey. It might mean that he'd have to fire deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, too, the man who appointed Mueller in the first place. A big no: Rosenstein himself testified before a Senate panel on Tuesday and was asked a simple question by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: “Have you seen good cause for firing Mueller?” He had a simple answer, per the Hill: “I have not." Conservative push: Newt Gingrich initially praised Mueller as a "superb choice," but on Monday, he tweeted: "Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.check fec reports. Time to rethink." Fellow conservative Ann Coulter joined the push, tweeting, "Now that we know TRUMP IS NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION, Sessions should take it back & fire Mueller." Big hire: Gingrich's remark about Mueller's hires may be in reference to high-powered criminal specialist Michael Dreeben joining the team. A post at Lawfare on Friday called the hire "the worst thing that happened to Donald Trump this week," because it signaled an aggressive investigation. Overplayed? A post at Axios suggests all this will amount to nothing. "Ordering the firing of Mueller really does seem unlikely," writes Mike Allen. "The near-universal advice Trump will be getting from his White House team—and from legal advisors close to the administration—will be that it's a catastrophic idea to get rid of Mueller." Before Ruddy: On ABC Sunday, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow perhaps got all this started by refusing to rule out the possibility of Trump firing Mueller. "I'm not going to speculate on what he will, or will not, do," said Sekulow, per Politico. He added that he "can't imagine" it would happen, however.