so it gets sticky.

kind of like Nixon's Sat night massacre & we know where that went.

not a run of the mill civil service employee.

Bork was third in line behind AG. He did not refuse, he fired special prosecutor. This was Saturday night massacre.

Only decent thing that right winger ever did.

Media are more inclined to writing fiction than investigating facts and law.

And it's now being used by the media.

useful for their overlords.

Playing right into their hands.

Link to tweet

Every time I hear him lately he is seriously slurring his words.

Such a poor representation of America.

That is why I don't understand when people say Trump cannot do this or that.
Trump does what he pleases.

...and appoint an interim AG (who isn't Rosenstein). Since that interim hasn't had to recuse himself as Sessions did, he can take control of the investigation back from Rosenstein, fire Mueller, and announce that, since he's now in charge of the investigation, he's reviewed the evidence and concluded that nobody did anything wrong. Move along, noting to see here.

No one is going to ask: "Do you intend to instruct Rozenstein to fire Mueller, then fire Rozenstein if he refuses, then fire his replacement if he/she refuses ...?"

I agree that it’s shorthand, but it’s more mental shorthand than linguistic shorthand.

Last edited Sun Dec 17, 2017, 11:44 PM - Edit history (2)

and that wouldn't only happen if he actually did fire him.

they don't. So I believe this is why you will not see Trump trying to actually fire Mueller before xmas.
If he does try to fire Mueller it will most likely be because they really think they found "cause" to. Right now the lawyers are probably still seeing if there is anyway to spin it for that purpose but most legal minds are saying Mueller hasn't done anything wrong.

If Trump fires his way to finding someone who will fire Mueller > that is going to look like further obstruction.
If he goes through with this I believe Congress can hire Mueller back and/or Mueller can take it to court.
If both of those issues do not find work out the FBI will continue investigating nonetheless.

There is no way out for Trump and the more he tries to interfere the more obstructionist he looks.
He should back off and let it play out instead of continuing the high speed chase, running through red lights, driving in the wrong lane and incurring more infractions against himself.

out of New York state charges against him or his family and minions. If he tries to get away with firing and pardoning the federal charges away, that will just make Schneiderman more determined to nail the bunch of them, I think.

...just like Nixon couldn't fire Cox, but could order his AG to do so.

Our report is in accord, recommending that the Attorney General’s regulation provide that a special counsel may be removed from office “only by the personal action of the Attorney General and only for good cause,” or physical or mental impairments. It explained that “n addition to the affirmative grant of independence, the other critical hallmark of independence, indeed the guardian of it, is the freedom from removal, absent good cause.”

https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/attorney-generals-special-counsel-regulations/

If Trump could fire him he'd already be gone. The fact it didn't happen right off the bat was the first clue.

if he refuses. Then order the next person in line to fire Mueller, and fire that person if she refuses. Etc.

he can legally do it by repealing some regulation.

Don't really know what the hell they were talking about...I wasn't paying close attention.

the Special Counsel and when they can be fired. Remove the regulation and you remove the rule
that prevents his firing except for cause.

Extremely extensive explanation of the issue:
https://lawfareblog.com/could-trump-remove-special-counsel-robert-mueller-lessons-watergate

It was said when he was hire that he has civil service protections on the job. That means he can only be fired for cause after the exercise of the proper procedures for firing a Federal Civil Service employee and after his due process rights had been exercised.

It would take at a minimum 4-6 months to fire him. You can’t just go up to any federal employee and say “got fired”.

There was a case not long ago of a DOD civilian employee who lit is supervisor, an active duty Army nurse, on fire. Like walked up to her, tossed gasoline on her and struck a match. It still took 90+ days to fire him as he sat in jail because the wheels of job termination for any Federal Civil Service job turn incredibly slow even when there is absolutely no resistance to them and the firing is totally justified.

Link to tweet