Rod Rosenstein wikipedia commons
Trump Risks His Own “Saturday Night Massacre”
It’s Friday the 13th and by all appearances, President Trump will fire Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenteine today. A while ago, the White House announced it would be making a special announcement about Rosenstein this afternoon.
Rachel Maddow of MSNBC tried to warn us last night; she said eat your Wheaties, get plenty of sleep, contact your friends, your family …. and get ready for something drastic to happen very soon.
Consider the following:
Trump has changed his tactics in his response to the Robert Mueller investigation into the Russian sabotage of the 2016 election. He’s coming out fighting – no longer cooperating. He has refused to be interviewed by Mueller and is moving against Mueller by firing the man who oversees Mueller, Rosenstein. With Rosenstein gone, Trump can replace – or may try to replace – both Rosenstein and Mueller.
Meanwhile, it looks like Mueller is about to conclude his investigation into the charge of obstruction of justice against Trump. It’s based on 4 elements:
- the firing of FBI Director James Comey;
- Trump’s involvement in covering up the true nature of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians;
- Trump’s waving the promise of pardons to potential witnesses to the Grand Jury;
- Pressuring Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself for the Russian investigation.
This is happening while Fox News and Steve Bannon and other Trump aides are screaming, “Fire Rosensteinl!”
James Comey’s new book has also just hit, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” and is devastating against Trump and his people. Comey compares Trump to a Mob boss.
Will the firing of Rosenteine trigger a Constitutional crisis? Is this Trump’s very own “Saturday Night Massacre”?
How will Congress react? How will the grassroots Resistance movement react? How will Trump’s base act?
If indeed this is the beginning of an escalation against the FBI, the DOJ, Rosenstein, Mueller – then we’d better hang on to our hates – cuz this is it. This will be the moment we’ve all feared for this last year.
After listening to Rachel’s very sobering analysis that the other shoe was about to drop, with her reporting once Mueller had completed his investigation into the obstruction of justice probe, he would then send it to Rosenstein, and it was up to Rosenstein to then send it to Congress for Impeachment proceedings.
So, Trump has to fire Rosenstein before he formally accepts the indictment from Mueller.
More for your consideration:
A bi-partisan group of Senators are prepared to vote next week on a measure to protect Mueller from being fired by anyone other than a top-ranking DOJ official.
And Rep. Brendan Boyle has declared if Trump does fire Rosenstein he will immediately offer an article of Impeachment in Congress.
Rosenstein himself has reportedly told colleagues he is prepared to be fired.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the Senate would not take up legislation limiting President Trump’s ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor, that’s my responsibility as the majority leader, and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate,” he told Fox News.
McConnell’s comments come as Trump has lashed out at Mueller following the FBI’s raid on the offices and hotel room of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The raid stemmed, in part, from a referral from Mueller’s team.
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week that would codify that only a senior Justice Department official can fire Mueller, and give Mueller or any other special counsel an “expedited review” of any firing.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/383620-mcconnell-senate-wont-take-up-mueller-protection-bill