A couple dozen students and community members gathered at 5 p.m. Thursday night at the Circle on campus as part of a nationwide day of protests to protect Robert Mueller, special counsel of the Trump-Russia investigation.

The event was called โNobody is above the law โ Mueller protection rapid responseโ and was organized by MoveOn, an activist group that promotes โsocial justice and political progress.โ
The protest kicked off with chants of โNo Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.โ and โProtect Muellerโs investigation.โ
Jordan Butler, a second year law student and host of Oxfordโs protest, said a large reason for the gathering was former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessionsโ firing and the promotion of Matthew Whitaker to acting attorney general.
โ(Whitaker) has written that he thinks it would be better for backlash purposes to just pull all funding from Mueller and refuse to let him indict anyone,โ Butler said. โWeโre here to protect Bob Muellerโs investigation.โ
Seth Dickinson, a first year law student, said he attended the protest because he sees the law as something worth โfighting for.โ
โWhen we started at the law school, the first thing they told us is the law applies to everybody,โ Dickinson said. โSeeing whatโs happening now, I understand that and having almost three fourths of a semester of knowledge of the law, I realize Iโve got to fight for it.โ
Butler said the group was just there to have their voices heard and show dissatisfaction with Muellerโs investigation potentially being compromised.
โI would just say itโs a huge conflict of interest on Trumpโs part to put someone into this position who has previously called it a witch hunt, and (because of Whitakerโs) previous stance on the Mueller investigation and who he would be directly overseeing,โ first year law student Abby Carter said. โYou canโt just fire someone because theyโre investigating you.โ

Thursday eveningโs protest began mere minutes after sundown, but Butler said he was told at first that the protesters would โhave to leave as soon as itโs dark enough (they) become a safety concern.โ A few University Police Department officers stood nearby, without intervening, as the protest went on well past sundown.
โWe (the LOU community) love to support organization and the congregation of the Oxford community when it serves us, but whenever itโs something that goes against the social grain, we want to try and put that in a box or like put a cap on that before itโs something we donโt want to hear,โ Carter said, mentioning that people attending sporting events are not immediately asked to leave even if itโs after dark.
โThey say we canโt protest or gather after dark,โ Dickinson said. โOur exact purpose is to bring some light to this subject.โ
In the end, there was no intervention by police. The protest concluded at 5:40 p.m., with a protester announcing that the demonstration will continue at 2 p.m Friday afternoon at the Oxford Courthouse on the Square.