NINETY MILES AN HOUR DOWN A DEAD END STREET

After nearly five months in office, Donald Trump finally had a full Cabinet meeting on Monday.  He left time at the concluding photo op for attendees to take turns praising him in full view of the press.  Apparently everyone took the knee except for General Mattis at Defense, who used his time to praise American troops.  Trump will probably fire him soon.

And speaking of being fired soon, rumors are circulating that Trump is planning to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.  Mueller is putting together an all star team of attorneys with expertise in everything from criminal law to various aspects of impeachment.  By reputation, they aren’t the kind of people who are just there to pad their resumes.  If anything illegal happened, they’ll find it and build an airtight case for some prosecutor to take either to court or to Congress.

Trump, on the other hand, has had trouble hiring his own high powered legal talent.  Some prominent firms are afraid of getting stiffed when payday rolls around.  Others, mindful of Trump’s propensity for self-incriminating tweets, just don’t want a client who won’t follow their advice.  Still others represent financial institutions that have already been served with subpoenas as part of the investigation of Russian money laundering.

At this point, Trump’s only lawyers are a couple of long-time cronies whose expertise is handling his divorces, and collecting damaging information on anyone who sues, or threatens to sue, their dear client.  Those cronies are clearly in over their heads, assuming Mueller is allowed to do his work. 

And that’s why the rumor about Trump firing Mueller is credible.  One of Trump’s lawyers has already floated a trial balloon on the topic, and reliable toady Newt Gingrich has added his voice to the chorus.  Gingrich tweeted on May 17 that, “Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity.”  On June 12, echoing Trump’s lawyer, he changed his tune:  “Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.”

Trump is unpredictable.  It’s one of his strategies.  It’s possible that his attorney is just blowing smoke. 

But I think Trump would like to fire Mueller.  He couldn’t do it directly, though.  He’d have to order Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, to do it.  Rosenstein’s reputation was compromised when he drafted a memo that gave Trump a pretext for firing James Comey.  If he topped that by firing his own Special Counsel, his name would live in infamy.  Trump has already thrown Rosenstein under the bus once.  If Rosenstein says no this time, then Trump could fire Rosenstein, and keep on firing people until someone agreed to do the deed – the Saturday Night Massacre all over again.  Unless Jeff Sessions un-recuses himself again and does the job himself.

At that point, Congressional Republicans will be looking like deer in the headlights.  At a defining moment in history, they won’t have any good options.

Their first two options are either to adopt Trump’s argument in its entirety, claiming that #TrumpRussia is all fake news, or to acknowledge that Trump is guilty of something, but that it doesn’t matter.  Elections have consequences, and we knew damn well he was a snake before we took him in.  Besides, Hillary’s emails!  Quite a few congressional Republicans come from safe districts.  Some of them will probably stick with one of these options and hope to ride out the storm.

But as Josh Marshall noted, “You don't keep firing investigators unless you know there is something catastrophically wrong waiting to be uncovered. This is obvious.”  Which leads us to the third option.  Something is indeed wrong, and it does indeed matter.  In that case, all they have to do is obey their oath of office – to “support and defend the Constitution.”  

How might they do that?  Representative Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says that if Trump shuts down the Justice Department investigation, Congress will appoint a Special Counsel and then name Robert Mueller to head it. 

But there’s a catch.  As I read the law, though, even if enough Republicans join Democrats in a vote to support a Special Counsel, their request would go to the Attorney General, who has the option of refusing saying no.  Do we assume that Jeff Sessions stays recused and punts the request to the Deputy AG?  And who might that be after the dust settles from this hypothetical Mueller firing?  Wouldn’t this scenario simply launch another round of Saturday Night Massacres?

Or maybe a majority of the House will support articles of impeachment.  I’m not holding my breath for that, at least unless the 2018 elections give us a Democratic majority in the House.  But it could theoretically happen.

Josh Marshall again:  “The US has already entered a slow motion constitutional crisis.  How quickly it accelerates, whether Trump defeats the constitution or vice versa, is really the only question.”  I agree that we’re in a crisis, but I think things are moving much faster that Marshall suggests.  We’re speeding towards the edge of a cliff, and the party in the driver's seat appears to be suicidal.

The reason I’m still optimistic is that we don’t have to rely on Congress for justice.  It’s early days yet, but the Attorneys General of Maryland and the District of Columbia have sued Donald Trump for violating the emoluments clause.  New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has jurisdiction over Trump’s campaign finances, as well as his family’s financial dealings.  If they laundered Russian money, they’re screwed. 

I remain convinced that one way or another, the truth will come out.  The American intelligence committee is already pissed off at Trump.  He can’t fire all of them, and his lawyers can’t bully them.  Firing Mueller would make them furious. 

And the best part is, they wouldn’t have to leak a single piece of information, because our allies (rapidly becoming former allies) in Europe despise Donald Trump and will be happy to share all the embarrassing and incriminating information they have.  And they have a lot of it.

We shall know the truth, but will the truth make us free?  That will be up to American voters.  That’s when we’ll find out whether the United States is a constitutional democracy or an oligarchy.