Robert Mueller hires Watergate prosecutor to pursue Donald Trump’s Russia scandal

| 10:40 pm EDT June 3, 2017
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been kicking off his investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal with a bang. He’s taken over the Michael Flynn grand jury and the Paul Manafort probe, and he’s set his sights on targeting Attorney General Jeff Sessions, with the hope of getting them to flip on Trump and reveal the truth. Mueller is also staffing up in a manner that’s equal parts aggressive and almost uniquely symbolic.

Mueller has the authority to hire whomever he wants for his team. As it turns out, one of his first major hires is James Quarles, who is best known for the work he did on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in the seventies (source: The Independent). The significance of this hire is twofold.

The first key here is that, obviously, Quarles has experience prosecuting Watergate – the only successful takedown of a president in U.S. history. That suggests Robert Mueller is swinging for the fences and expecting his investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal to become every bit as high-stakes as Watergate. The second key is that Mueller has been doing this long enough to understand the symbolism involved in bringing in a Watergate veteran, and he clearly doesn’t mind the comparisons he’s invoking by doing so.

Mueller is also hiring Aaron Zebley, his old Chief of Staff from when he was the Director of the FBI. This suggests that with Trump having fired James Comey and left the FBI with a leadership vacuum in the process, Mueller may be looking to craft his new team into a de facto FBI leadership team. It’s also worth noting that Mueller can keep hiring nearly anyone he wants. This all comes with Comey now set to publicly testify about his firing in just five days. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter. If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report