Here’s the link to what I consider a convincing opinion by a former Assistant Attorney General, Harry Litman. It’s based on this premise of something Trump will avoid at any cost:
First, there are strong signs that Mueller may soon indict Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and advisor. Kushner’s lawyer has been quietly shopping for a crisis response team of the sort brought on board for criminal prosecutions. Kushner’s indictment would be a disaster for the president: Either his son-in-law goes to prison, or cooperates by providing the mother lode of inculpatory information. Probably no one, except possibly Donald Trump Jr., knows more about Trump’s activities as president, candidate and entrepreneur. (Remember that Deutsche Bank, whose records Mueller recently subpoenaed, lent Kushner $285 million in addition to its highly questionable loans to Trump.)
He makes the point that “Congress is about to leave town for Christmas break, leaving Washington at its sleepiest and least prepared for a nimble response.” Unlike when Congress took their two month Summer recess, and they had not completely succumbed to subordinance to their leader so had passed legislation unanimously that this was not to be an official recess, to avoid Trump making a recess appointment to asst. A.G. who could then officially do the firing. At this point, there are no more “never-Trumpers” in the Republican Senate, and not likely to be one after they all joined hands to jump into the river that may turn into a flood of contempt when the effects of this Tax Reform Bill is felt by the public. It could be that all the nonsense of it not hurting those who will lose medical coverage and hundreds of other picking the pocket gimmicks will be realized with a backlash of anger by the public. Those “little people” with only a single vote then will count more than those who where given windfalls in this law, whose millions to con these people may not be enough.
So Trump and his Republican senate now must act while they have a united front. If he fires Meuller in the next two weeks, there won’t be a peep from the only Senators and Representatives who count, those who are part of the Republican majority.
LA Times did run a mild rebuttal of this OpEd this morning, “ Trump has the formidable power to fire Mueller, but the Constitution's constraints are also powerful” This includes this section:
In general, presidents must distinguish what they can do from what they should do. Impeachment’s “high crimes and misdemeanors,” we believe, include not just criminal acts, but also abuse of power, maladministration and even poor judgment. Trump could fire Mueller, but the backlash might unify both parties against him.
The law professor who wrote this is free to believe that impeachment may be for “maladministration” but the founders actually debated this exact cause of action. And their decision was not to include it, as it was too vague and would give Congress too much power over the president who was duly elected- in their vision by independent electors who would be of a stature to recognize and exclude demagogues.
If most readers, like myself, are either demoralized by the passing of this Tax Bill, or else beyond being upset, which is resignation to what has been a legal coup that has changed our government and our society, it could be this is the calm before the storm. If the first OpEd article is correct, and it seems convincing to me, and the Majority Republicans do nothing if Meuller is fired ……..
What do you think?