Mueller Bies

Perhaps that’ll happen–but perhaps not. If Trump is principally motivated by a desire to stymie the Mueller and related investigations, it’s possible that those advising the president might persuade him that removing Rosenstein might not do the trick, and that he’s better off “merely” continuing his campaign to try to discredit Mueller in the eyes of his base (and Republicans in Congress) . In this regard it’s worth recalling that when President Richard Nixon effected the removal of the Attorney General, the Deputy AG and the Watergate Special Prosecutor, not only did it ignite a political firestorm that grievously weakened Nixon, but it also resulted–less than two weeks later–in the appointment of a new Watergate Counsel, Leon Jaworski, who had far greater legal and practical independence than Archibald Cox ever did. Perhaps that explains why, as Jack Goldsmith has recounted, that although Trump has appeared to be on the verge of doing something drastic at DOJ several times since he removed Jim Comey as FBI Director, he has yet to bite the bullet.So let’s not be too hasty to assume Trump will remove Rosenstein.But what if he does? Who would replace Rosenstein as DAG in the event Trump fires him or he resigns under pressure? And who would supervise the Russia and related investigations? The answers to these questions ought to be straightforward–and they would be, if the President hewed to past practice–but it turns out to be quite a bit more complicated to describe the array of possibilities.  This post reflects my best view, as of now, of the various legal questions.  Please keep in mind, however, that I haven’t been privy to internal DOJ analysis, and there’s not a lot of case law on these questions, so these views are necessarily tentative.  If and when I learn more, I’ll update the post.  [Where I have made substantive edits, I will note that at the end of the...