Robert Mueller just cleverly made it so Donald Trump can’t fire him
Back when stories emerged in the newspapers that former FBI Director James Comey had kept memos of his conversations with Donald Trump, it was obvious those stories were originating from Comey himself, and I said so at the time; he later confirmed it. But up to now, I’ve seen no evidence Special Counsel Robert Mueller has strategically tossed any bones to the media during his Russia investigation. That is, until tonight.
The story surfaced this evening in the Washington Post that Robert Mueller is in fact investigating Donald Trump for obstruction of justice in relation to his firing of Comey (link). This story emanated from Mueller himself. We know this because no one on his team, and for that matter no one at an FBI that’s overwhelmingly loyal to him, would have dared put this out there without Mueller’s blessing. It’s also fairly obvious why Mueller fed this to the newspapers at this particular time.
For the past two days, we’ve been hearing ongoing grumblings from the White House that Donald Trump has been considering trying to fire Robert Mueller, in the hope of once again sidetracking the Russia investigation. Such a move would probably have backfired on Trump rather badly. Republicans in Congress would have felt compelled to line up behind the idea of reappointing Mueller as an Independent Counsel, just so they wouldn’t face backlash for it in the midterms.
But now all of a sudden, with the story out there that Robert Mueller is directly investigating Donald Trump for obstruction of justice, the stakes are much higher. If Trump now tries to fire Mueller after this news has come out, it would look so bad that the Republicans in Congress would have to side with Mueller forcefully. And so by making it known that he’s now investigating Trump directly, Mueller has made is so that Trump can’t fire him. Trump may be playing an angry game of checkers, but Mueller is playing chess – and he’s winning.
