Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions “testified” in open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. More accurately, he responded to the questions he wanted to answer but claimed some sort of privilege with those questions he didn’t want to face. He refused to answer because the President might someday assert executive privilege as to those responses. It was remarkable because, if that were actually correct, then Congress could never get testimony from anyone in the Executive Branch if that person didn’t want to answer.
Meanwhile, other revelations rolled in. On Wednesday the Washington Post reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice. Given that Trump himself indicated that he fired FBI Director Robert Comey because of the Russia investigation– and a majority of Americans think trump meddled in the Russia probe– few were surprised, but still it was interesting. This was followed later on Wednesday by a New York Times pieces stating that Mueller was also looking into money laundering by Trump associates.
As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memorandum aptly described the situation, The Russia Probe Is a Vast Lava Flow Moving Toward Trump. The investigation is slow but ultimately deadly.
Thursday and Friday rumors started circulating that Trump might fire Special Counsel Mueller and the number two official at the Department of Justice, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller. Senator Dianne Feinstein among others expressed concern.
While Trump can fire Rosenstein, who is a DOJ employee, Trump can’t directly fire Mueller. Instead Rosenstein, or his replacement, would have to do that. (Rosenstein could also step out of the hot spot by recusing himself due to conflict of interest, just as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has done, which led to Rosenstein being the one to appoint Mueller.) Still, Trump could simply keep firing people at the DOJ until he finds someone willing to dismiss Special Counsel Mueller. That would be similar to what President Richard Nixon did in his famous “Saturday Night Massacre”, where he directed first Attorney General Elliot Richardson and then Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson and then Ruckelshaus both resigned rather than comply. Nixon then ordered the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, as acting head of the Justice Department, to fire Cox – and Bork did.
And who’s next below Rosenstein? That would be Rachel Brand, a conservative who’s a member of the right-wing Federalist Society. On the other hand, getting the special prosecutor fired did not save Nixon, and it’s very unlikely it would save Trump either.
Bruce