President vs. the prosecutor
The revelation that President Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller should reinvigorate the bipartisan effort to protect the independent office. It should also illuminate the troubling defense that Trump has pursued to this day: Instead of answering the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign that Mueller is investigating, he has attacked the investigation itself — and thereby exposed himself to additional charges of obstruction.
The New York Times’ widely confirmed report indicates that only the objection of White House counsel Don McGahn, and presumably fear of the fallout, stopped Trump from firing Mueller in June and triggering a crisis of Nixonian proportions. The Saturday Night Massacre, in which Richard Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox and precipitated the resignation of the attorney general and deputy attorney general, marked the beginning of the end of his presidency.
Canning the special counsel could well have numbered Trump’s days in office too, but a pair of bipartisan Senate bills would take the reasonable precaution of enabling the courts to review such a move. Stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee for months, the legislation deserves to proceed.
Even for an administration known for propagating disinformation, the report that Trump tried to dismiss Mueller debunks a remarkable series of categorical denials. Asked about the prospect that the special counsel would be fired in August, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC, “The president has not even discussed that”; Trump lawyer John Dowd told USA Today, “That has never been on the table”; and Trump himself said, “I haven’t given it any thought.” In fact, even as Trump and company have pretended to be eager to cooperate because there was “no collusion,” they have waged a war on the investigation that did not end with the abortive attempt to oust Mueller.
Consider recent howls to “release the memo” said by some to reveal investigative abuses and bias. The memo was compiled by aides of Central Valley Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chairman and an avid administration water carrier, based on classified information (which is why it hasn’t been released). Republican and Democratic lawmakers are at odds about its import, and both its source and its inaccessibility advise skepticism.
The same goes for the text messages a former Mueller agent inappropriately exchanged with his paramour, an FBI lawyer, on government-issued phones. The texts do show that the agent (like a majority of his fellow Americans) harbored a distaste for Trump, which is why Mueller fired him in July. But contrary to the most unhinged Republican lawmakers, the messages don’t reveal a “secret society” within the FBI that plotted the president’s overthrow. Moreover, the special counsel’s reaction to them suggests he runs a tight ship.
It’s worth reiterating that Mueller is a decorated Marine and a Republican chosen by Republicans to serve as FBI director and special counsel. That his investigation has been under such sustained attack speaks to its seriousness and smacks of a coverup.