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Red alert warning: Trump may fire Mueller soon

by Brent Budowsky, opinion contributor - 01/30/18 10:15 AM ET

Democratic leaders should vow that if Democrats regain control of the House, the House Intelligence Committee will be composed of members equally divided between the parties.

They should vow that the chairmanship rotates between the parties no matter which party controls the House and will never again be treated like a partisan political farce in a banana republic state — the way it is being treated today by committee Republicans and Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

I now strongly believe that President Trump will soon fire Robert Mueller, using the upcoming report of the Justice Department inspector general as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which would pave the way to fire Robert Mueller, which would guarantee the most extreme constitutional crisis in American history.

{mosads}With an 85 percent probability, I now believe that President Trump will never agree to be questioned by Mueller and his special counsel team. The fast-moving time schedule to resolve whether Trump does or does not agree to be questioned by Mueller will be a precipitating event for Trump firing Mueller if indeed this occurs.

I assign a probability to these warnings because they may not be proven correct. However, because there is a significant prospect they are, and because the consequences for America would be so dangerous and dramatic if they are, it is time to issue a warning in the strongest possible terms that a great constitutional crisis may be imminent for the republic.

There is one way to prevent this constitutional crisis, which in my view has already begun and has been advancing in slow motion for many months with the repeated actions by the president to fire, threaten, intimidate, bully, pressure or politicize every leader of every institution of justice and law enforcement in America, one after another, from the beginning of his presidency until today.

Congress must pass pending bipartisan legislation that would protect Mueller from being fired by Trump. The House and Senate must take roll call votes in which members take unequivocal stands to prove to their constituents and the nation whether or not they truly want to uphold the rule of law in America by protecting Mueller from being fired by Trump.

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Local media should ask every member of the Senate and House whether they support the bipartisan proposals to protect Mueller from being fired. The argument of some members, that they vehemently oppose Trump firing Mueller but do not believe the legislation is needed because they do not believe he will do it, is one of the most specious and dishonest excuses ever offered by legislators to oppose a bill.

If legislators who oppose this protection for Mueller do not believe Trump would ever fire him, there is no harm done by preventing an act they do not believe will happen anyway.

Republican leaders in Congress should consider what will happen to Republicans in the midterm elections if they kill legislation that would protect Mueller from being fired by Trump and he is then fired by Trump.

They would be engulfed in a national firestorm of outrage for refusing to act due to partisan political reasons when they had the chance.

Here is what obstruction of justice looks like:

Trump fired Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney from New York. He fired Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, after she warned the White House that Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser who has since reached a plea bargain with Mueller, could be subject to blackmail by Russia.

Trump fired FBI Director James Comey after Comey would not make a loyalty pledge to Trump or let Flynn off the hook. Trump has threatened to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and tried to bully Sessions into using the Justice Department as a political weapon to attack his opponents.

Trump repeatedly threatened, attacked and sought to remove former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The president has repeatedly attacked and threatened Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

While Russia is attacking America, Trump once attacked the CIA, which defends America from the Russian attack, by shamefully and despicably comparing the CIA to Nazi Germany. Trump has also attacked British intelligence.

Trump has repeatedly and aggressively attacked and attempted to discredit the FBI, aided and abetted by his strongest allies in Congress, including the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who runs his committee like it is the Republican National Committee — one of the most egregious abuses of power in the history of Congress.

Trump’s repeated hostile and aggressive attacks against the leaders and institutions that protect and enforce justice and law enforcement in America are unprecedented in the history of our republic.

There is now a clear and present danger that Trump fires Mueller. It is urgent that Republicans join Democrats in passing the bipartisan legislation that would prevent this, before it is too late.

If Republicans refuse to support this measure, they will pay a major price at the polls in the midterm elections. More importantly, the nation will pay a heavy price for these continued attacks against the rule of law in America.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.