--- title: Eric Holder Warns Against White House Firing Robert Mueller description: Former Attorney General Eric Holder called any potential termination of White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller an "absolute red line." canonical: https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-17T22:02:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:30:53.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Eric Holder Says Termination of Robert Mueller Would Be 'Absolute Red Line' og:description: "There must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both" og:url: https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ab7e61a9f410bfc/69877a8a06f2c13377333740/attorney-general-eric-holder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Attorney General Eric Holder announces at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 2014, that Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eric Holder Says Termination of Robert Mueller Would Be 'Absolute Red Line' twitter:description: "There must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ab7e61a9f410bfc/69877a8a06f2c13377333740/attorney-general-eric-holder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former Attorney General Eric Holder Says Termination of Robert Mueller Would Be 'Absolute Red Line' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:30 PM UTCPublished: Dec 17, 2017 10:02 PM UTC  Attorney General Eric Holder announces at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 2014, that Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis. Attorney General Eric Holder announces at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 2014, that Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:30 PM UTCPublished: Dec 17, 2017 10:02 PM UTC Former Attorney General Eric Holder called any potential termination of White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller an “absolute red line” and insinuated peaceful demonstrations should ensue if anything happens. “If removed or meaningfully tampered with, there must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both. The American people must be seen and heard – they will ultimately be determinative,” Holder wrote on Twitter Sunday. > [](https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/942481938165747712) Trump told reporters Sunday that he was [not planning](https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/942512639216844800) on firing Mueller, echoing the sentiments from White House legislative affairs director Marc Short, who said on _Meet the Press_ Sunday there had been “[no conversations”](https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/-no-conversation-about-firing-special-counsel-robert-mueller-in-the-white-house-1118422595691) about it. Holder, who served as Attorney General in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2015, had issued similar sentiments on Twitter Thursday. “Speaking on behalf of the vast majority of the American people, Republicans in Congress be forewarned:any attempt to remove Bob Mueller will not be tolerated,” he wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/941315510179893249) Holder’s latest comments come after a report that Mueller’s office has [obtained access to thousands of emails](http://time.com/5067982/robert-mueller-trump-transition-email/) from the presidential transition. According to the Associated Press, an attorney for the President’s transition group had sent a letter to two congressional committees arguing that Mueller’s office improperly obtained them because they had received them from the General Services Administration and not Trump’s transition group. The letter was sent to the House Oversight and the Senate Homeland Security committees, the AP reported. A spokesperson for Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, [told _Politico_ Sunday ](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/17/gowdy-mueller-trump-probe-301498)that the dispute needed to be solved by the courts and not Congress. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/"},"headline":"Former Attorney General Eric Holder Says Termination of Robert Mueller Would Be 'Absolute Red Line'","datePublished":"2017-12-17T22:02:21.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:30:53.000Z","description":"\"The American people must be seen and heard\"","url":"https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ab7e61a9f410bfc/69877a8a06f2c13377333740/attorney-general-eric-holder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ab7e61a9f410bfc/69877a8a06f2c13377333740/attorney-general-eric-holder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Attorney General Eric Holder announces at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 2014, that Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis.","caption":"Attorney General Eric Holder announces at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 2014, that Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis.","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/","name":"Former Attorney General Eric Holder Says Termination of Robert Mueller Would Be 'Absolute Red Line'"}}]}] ```