Maxine Waters rips FBI conspiracies: ‘We won't allow Fox News to defy the rule of law’ and ‘destroy’ Mueller's probe

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Thursday led a group of 171 Democrats in condemnation of right-wing attempts to smear special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"We have decided we will not stand by and allow Fox News and right-wing Republicans to defy the rule of law and create their own rules to interfere with a legitimate investigation under the Constitution of the United States," Waters said during her #ProtectMueller press conference.

"We will be vigorously working to deny the brazen attempts to destroy special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation," the California congresswoman continued.

In a letter addressed to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein signed by the large cadre of congressional Democrats, Waters implored the Justice Department to go further in ensuring Mueller and his team "be allowed to continue his investigation – unfettered by political influence or threats to his authority."

Waters noted in the letter that when Mueller was first appointed, Republican leadership were tacitly in favor of him leading the investigation.

"I don't think many people are saying Mueller is a biased partisan," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner in July 2017. "He's really, sort of, anything but."

"Despite Special Counsel Mueller’s record of integrity," the letter continued, "the right-wing media, some Republican Members of Congress and Donald Trump, himself, have attempted to advance a false narrative that Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation is biased, and some have advocated for Mr. Mueller’s removal."

Watch Waters' press conference with leading congressional Democrats below.