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| Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was chosen to oversee the inquiry amid escalating pressure. Christopher Gregory/The New York Times |
RAISING THE STAKES: Justice Dept Names Former FBI Director Robert Mueller As Special Counsel for Russia Investigation.
- Finally, we have a special counsel to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia and attempts to interfere with the FBI: former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller (who led the bureau from 2001 to 2013) late Wednesday. ...
- In his order, Rosenstein states, “If the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.” [DocumentCloud / Department of Justice]
- The appointment came as some Republicans started to turn on Trump, following the revelation late Tuesday that the President asked FBI Director James Comey to halt an investigation into former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
- House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz sent a letter to the FBI's acting director requesting "all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the President," saying that the New York Times's report about the Flynn request "raise[d] questions as to whether the President attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation as it relates to Lt. Gen. Flynn." [House Oversight Committee]
- Chaffetz then clarified that he is willing to use his subpoena power to get the memo where Comey recorded that Trump tried to interfere. [Washington Post / Amber Phillips] ...
- If Mueller concludes that Trump has committed a crime, impeachment would be the logical next step....Mueller would certainly,... have the power to indict aides to Trump.
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| President Donald Trump is doing nothing to hide his hurt at the way he feels he is being mistreated. | AP Photo |
In the short-term, politically, this newest development might give Republicans and the White House a little bit of breathing room. They can offer support for the special counsel to deflect many of the difficult and important questions that remain unanswered. But, in truth, the long-term danger to Trump’s presidency from the Russia scandal is greater today than it was yesterday.
As long as Mueller’s probe drags on, a huge dark cloud will hang over the White House. Who knows just how high up this investigation might go? Or, very hypothetically at this point, who in the Trump orbit might turn state’s witness if offered a deal to avoid jailtime? And Mueller is respected enough (more on that below) that any attempt to neuter him, or even just rein him in, could lead to a Constitutional crisis. In that way, Trump just lost a little more control over the fate of his presidency.
...Mueller is also empowered to probe possible attempts to stymie his investigation. That language gives him leeway to interpret his mandate broadly if he chooses. It also might mean he goes after people who leaked classified information related to the bureau’s Russia investigation. He can continue his work however long he wants, and he is broadly “authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation.” That means this could last for years – potentially through the president’s 2020 reelection campaign.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, primarily concerned with advancing conservative tax reform though Congress, says Rosenstein made a “mistake” by “bending to political pressure” and worries it will hinder the GOP agenda: “These expeditions rarely end well for anyone … Mueller will be under pressure to bring criminal indictments of some kind to justify his existence. He’ll also no doubt bring on young attorneys who will savor the opportunity to make their reputation on such a high-profile investigation. … He is highly attuned to the political winds. As they say in Washington, lawyer up.”
“The risk is that you lose control of your agenda,” added Robert Luskin, a Washington white-collar attorney who represented Karl Rove in the Plame investigation, as well as a pair of Clinton senior officials during Whitewater. “It’s an enormous distraction. It’s an energy suck. As long as the clouds hang over a presidency it becomes much more difficult to get anything else done.” [Terrific news!--Esco]
The leaders of the Senate and House committees conducting their own inquiries pledged last night to move forward, setting up a complex landscape of potentially conflicting investigations — and competing goals. ...Democrats cheered the news, but many also said that there still needs to be an independent investigation.
The Washington Post Editorial Board says the special counsel should not let Congress off the hook and makes an important point about what an independent investigation can do that Mueller cannot: “The special counsel’s job is only to look for criminal behavior and, if he finds any, to prosecute the wrongdoers. His job is not to inform the public or to pass judgment on actions that may have been unwise, inappropriate or unethical — but did not violate the law. … A full accounting is likely to emerge only if Congress appoints a special commission like the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks.”
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| Alex Wong/Getty |
IF YOU DON’T KNOW MUELLER:
-- He brings to this role a proven willingness to take on a sitting president. From a nicely-turned profile by Matea Gold, Rosalind Helderman and Tom Hamburger: “In a high-drama episode in 2004, he and then-Deputy Attorney General Comey [who remains his friend] were preparing to resign from their positions if President Bush reauthorized the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretap program without changes. Bush backed down. Former colleagues said the ex-Marine Corps officer and former U.S. attorney, who was sworn in as FBI director a week before the 2001 terrorist attacks, is uniquely suited to the task. A former deputy attorney general who later did a stint prosecuting homicide cases in Washington, Mueller is a known as a no-nonsense, relentless prosecutor with a deep reverence for the rule of law. ‘The most devastating thing that can happen to an institution is that people begin to shade and dissemble,’ he told Washingtonian magazine in 2008.”
The former director has demonstrated an impressive, lifelong commitment to public service. Some quick biographical details: “Mueller grew up in Philadelphia and went to St. Paul’s School, the elite prep school in New Hampshire, where he played hockey with John F. Kerry … At Princeton, he was inspired to join the Marine Corps by a former student who died in Vietnam … He led a rifle platoon in Vietnam, eventually receiving numerous commendations, including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. After graduating from the University of Virginia Law School, Mueller worked for a dozen years as an assistant U.S. attorney in San Francisco and Boston. Mueller succeeded William Weld as U.S. attorney in Boston and then went to Washington in 1989 as an assistant to Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh, eventually rising to be chief of the criminal division. During his tenure, he worked on high-profile cases such as the prosecution of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega and the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.”
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| Win McNamee/Getty Images |
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY – ROD SAVES HIMSELF:
-- Rosenstein’s 6 p.m. announcement that Mueller has agreed to take on the duties of special counsel seemed timed, at least in part, to take some of the sting out of what is sure to be a contentious visit to the Hill today. Behind closed doors, he will give a classified briefing to the full Senate at 2:30 p.m. today about the firing of Comey, and he’ll return to brief House members tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.
He took charge of overseeing the Russia probe after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself because he had given false testimony to Congress about his contacts with the Russians.
Rosenstein, a Republican, was appointed U.S. attorney for Maryland by Bush in 2005. But the state’s Democratic senators, Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, asked Barack Obama to keep him onboard for the past eight years. With hundreds of hyper-ambitious liberals who would have killed for the U.S. attorney posting in a lawyer-heavy state like Maryland, his staying power in the Obama years was truly remarkable. This is how he got confirmed as deputy A.G. three weeks ago by a vote of 94-6, an unusual show of support in this polarized moment.
But last week Rosenstein squandered all the goodwill he had earned from the left over the years by writing the thin-gruel memo justifying Comey’s termination...That raised a host of questions about Rosenstein’s independence and judgment.
Making matters worse for him, the White House made a strategic decision to blame the Comey firing on Rosenstein as much as possible. Sources told The Post last week that Rosenstein threatened to resign if West Wing aides kept insisting publicly that the president acted only because of his recommendation.
Rosenstein, who grew accustomed to positive press coverage over the years, was buffeted by a relentlessstorm of negative commentary from the elite mediaand the legal trade press for the past eight days....“Former colleagues said Rosenstein’s move (last night) may help restore his battered reputation among current and former government lawyers,”
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| Members of President Trump's staff depart from Air Force One together upon Trump's arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Wednesday. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) |
WEST WING INTRIGUE:
-- THE TOUGHEST GIG IN WASHINGTON RIGHT NOW? WORKING FOR TRUMP. “As [Trump] has grown increasingly angry and frustrated with his White House staff, the beleaguered targets of his ire have a quietly roiling gripe of their own — their boss, the president himself," Ashley Parker and Abby Phillip report: “In the nine days since he fired [Comey], Trump has lurched through a series of crises of his own making … And in his wake remain his exhausted aides and deputies, the frequent targets of Trump’s wrath as they struggle to control an uncontrollable chief executive and labor to explain away his stumbles. Some White House staffers have turned to impeachment gallows humor. Other mid-level aides have started reaching out to consultants, shopping their resumes. And at least one senior staffer has begun privately talking to friends about what a post-White House job would look like …
“For many White House staffers, impromptu support groups of friends, confidants and acquaintances have materialized, calling and texting to check in, inquiring about their mental state and urging them to take care of themselves. [One operative said] ...that any savvy White House staffer should be keeping a diary. ‘The real question is: How long do you put up with it?,’ this person said. ‘Every one of those people could get a better paying job and work less hours.’”
How do aides deal with the president's short-attention span? "National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump’s name in ‘as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned,’ according to one source," per Reuters’ Steve Holland and Jeff Mason. ...
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| Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, pictured in 2016, was spotted in the West Wing lobby on Tuesday, according to two White House officials. | Getty |
Politico’s Tara Palmeri reports: Trump, frustrated by his administration’s handling of the multiple scandals engulfing the White House, has turned once again to his team of former campaign advisers, including Jason Miller, David Bossie, and Corey Lewandowski.
John Yoo, who as Bush 43’s assistant attorney general authored the notorious “torture memos,” believes Trump’s purported comments to Comey “come close to obstruction of justice but don’t clearly cross the line.” The Berkeley law professor writes in an op-ed for today’s New York Times:...“Contrary to common wisdom, impeachment does not require the president to commit a crime but instead refers to significant political mistakes or even incompetence,” he adds. “This was the framers’ intent — as Hamilton explained in Federalist 65, impeachment was to tackle ‘the misconduct of public men’ or ‘the abuse or violation of some public trust.’ Such offenses, he wrote, ‘are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.’ The first step would be for Congress to form a special committee to investigate the Russia controversy and the Trump-Comey affair.”