Fox's Kilmeade speculates that special counsel Robert Mueller is leaking to the press about the Russia probe

Brian Kilmeade: “Now we find out that there’s leaks coming, perhaps … from Robert Mueller”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox & Friends responded to reports that President Donald Trump is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice by attempting to smear special counsel Robert Mueller. Co-host Brian Kilmeade baselessly claimed that Mueller is leaking to the media, pointing to The Washington Post’s report (the Post cited “five people briefed on the interview requests" from Mueller's team, not Mueller himself or the FBI). Kilmeade and his co-host Ainsley Earhardt also attacked Mueller and his team as partisan, adding that Mueller “picked a bunch of Democratic donors” and hired “Democratic attorneys” for the investigation. A search of campaign donation records found that Mueller and two other members of his team have made no political donations, two have donated to Democrats, and one has donated to both Republicans and Democrats.

Media allies of Trump have been attacking Mueller since he was appointed special counsel, despite the fact that he is widely respected across the political spectrum.

From the June 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Special counsel Robert Mueller is now reporting, according to The Washington Post, that there is an investigation of President [Donald] Trump for obstruction of justice.



[…]



This is unbelievable that they have this special investigation to avoid all the leaks and the innuendo, and pull it basically away from Congress where they're gossiping likeschoolgirls, and now we find out that there’s leaks coming, perhaps -- if the The Washington Post is correct, and nobody else has this -- that these are actually coming from Robert Mueller, who many people are wondering why Robert Mueller picked a bunch of Democratic donors with these great judicial records and why people should feel good about it knowing how close he is with James Comey. Could this be somewhat of James Comey's revenge? 



AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Mueller hired all these big time attorneys -- these Democratic attorneys -- that have gone up against the Supreme Court more than 100 times.



STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Right, and sure, and the White House has suggested that the leaks came from the FBI. So if it came from either one of them, that's just not good. 



KILMEADE: Right. If you’re Robert Mueller, you’ve got to put the fear of God in them, that “You better not leak this out because I'll prosecute you, too." And even though Robert Mueller did interview for the FBI job -- again, mysteriously he might want it again after Comey got fired on May 9 -- I'm just wondering where this comes from, and then also, in the big picture, if everyone is OK with Mueller's fill-in position.