Trump’s position is similar to that of most employers. Many jurisdictions in the US are under at-will employment laws. You can fire someone for any reason or no reason. However, if you fire him/her for the wrong reason (e.g., discrimination, cover up of harassment etc.), you get hit with a wrongful termination suit. Legally speaking (assuming for the sake of argument that Trump doesn’t believe he can physically shut down the investigation mafia style), Trump has already put himself in legal jeopardy. There is no good way for him to fire Rosenstein without catching a case for obstruction. The question is whether Trump is going to use brute force politics and shut things down with the help of the GOP Congress.
Trey Gowdy had a taste of this too I believe. He fired a staff member after that person would not falsify a Benghazi report to slam Hillary. He fired the individual and then that individual filed a complaint for wrongful termination (can’t recall whether it was through the ethics committee or in federal court under seal) which he was forced to settle out.
President Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.
So would I, but timing is everything. Making a ruckus about this at the time that counts most would be great. Also, for all we know, Mueller has a lot of info on this and could/will include it in his conclusion, recommendations, charges - whatever he ends up issuing.
Man, what a fucking letdown. After I heard that Nunes apparently edited and changed the memo before the release, I was expecting scenes of bondage rape against Carter Page by Robert Mueller, and Dems dining on Comet Ping-Pong Pizza topped with sliced Anglo-Saxon baby hearts. But I would have to go to a McDonald’s on an alternative universe to find a nothingburger as big as this.
Not to amplify your [regrettably reasonable cynicism], but there’s no evidence to suggest that video of Donald Trump barbecuing babies on the South Lawn and eating them would prompt the Republican House to entertain Impeachment Proceedings against him. I mean, if High Treason with a hostile foreign power isn’t getting their attention, why would murder or a little harmless cannibalism worry them?
What’s confounding about all of this is why the stonewalling? Why not let Mueller play it on through and then bury it under a mound of legaltudes (that’s a word, right?) as Eric Columbus suggested in WaPo? The constant obstruction only feeds the press and ignites the fury of the opposition, which could very well turn the house and senate.
I expect this to be a busy Friday afternoon, and I’m thinking Monday is going to be a doozy, one of those days where news is still breaking during Maddow.
It’s not the Democrats you should carp against. The letter is, as someone else said, so much toilet paper unless it bears the signatures of 20 GOP Representatives and 20 GOP Senators. That letter would be taken seriously. Alas, the spineless Congressmen sit in the red seats.
I agree, absolutely. And Donald will be insanely furious (expect a major Twitter workout from those tiny, cholesterol-infused thumbs of his) that every news organization in print, television and on the internet isn’t screaming for the heads of Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein (damn, I wish one of the prosecutors on Mueller’s team was named Alfredo Garcia. LOL!). But the memo is such a turdly dud I can only see the major anchors and reporters laughing uproariously. Except on Fox, of course, where they will interview and canonize wronged martyr and supergenius Carter Page because, hey, they have to do something after made to look like absolute assholes.
Trump absolutely despises being defied or having any actions or decisions on his part called into question. All must lay prostrate before him, and he’s hardwired to lash out against those that don’t, however ill-advised or imprudent that may be.
Make their case… Express the seriousness of the situation to the American people! This is the same thing Democowards said during the Obama administration… “What do you want him to do? They only have 60 Senate seats…” You know who was in the minority then (hint, the Republicans), yet they took to the media and got their tea party base energized and fighting. They stopped cap & trade and nearly derailed the ACA. Dems need to build their own narrative, not respond to each strike at our democracy with an impotent whimper.
