Article snippet: More than 40 former U.S. attorneys and Republican and conservative officials are pushing back against efforts to discredit the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a pair of letters, the groups say Robert Mueller and his team must be allowed to continue their work, unimpeded. The 22 former U.S. attorneys, who served under presidents from Chuck Hagel, former State Department counselor Eliot Cohen and former George W. Bush administration ethics lawyer Richard Painter. The letters come as Mueller's team is facing heightened scrutiny in recent weeks following reports that two FBI officials who would later be assigned to the special counsel's investigation called Trump an "idiot" and "loathsome human" in a series of text messages last year. Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent, was removed from Mueller's team over the summer following the discovery of text messages exchanged with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who was also detailed this year to the group of agents and prosecutors investigating potential coordination between Russia and Trump's Republican campaign. Allies of the president have seized on the messages and other details about Mueller's team to allege it is biased against Trump. Trump has repeatedly called investigations into his campaign a "witch hunt" fueled by Democrats still angry about his election win. Still, Trump and White House officials have said recently that he has no intention of firing M... Link to the full article to read more