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Close friend of Trump says he’s considering firing special prosecutor Bob Mueller

Chris Ruddy, CEO of the right-wing media company NewsMax, is a close friend of President Donald Trump. They golf together. On Monday, Ruddy visited the White House.

Shortly after leaving the White House, Ruddy appeared on PBS Newshour and said that Trump is considering firing special prosecutor Bob Mueller, who is investigating the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia, Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, and related matters.

Ruddy’s comments followed days of seemingly coordinated attacks on Mueller’s integrity by Trump allies. On Sunday, Jay Sekulow, who recently joined Trump’s legal team, would not rule out the firing of Mueller. “Look, the president of the United States, as we all know, is a unitary executive,” Sekulow said.

Could Trump actually fire Mueller? Probably, but it would be very difficult.

Federal regulations says special prosecutors can be “removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General.” Here, that would mean Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter. According to the regulations, Rosenstein could only remove Mueller “for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies.”

Last week, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) “asked Rosenstein to provide a letter to Mueller that assure he will be fully independent as he leads the Justice Department’s investigation into potential collusion between associates of the Trump campaign and Russia.” Rosenstein refused.

Theoretically, Trump could order Rosenstein to fire Mueller. Rosenstein could refuse to do so, but Trump could then fire Rosenstein and find a replacement who would do his bidding.

Here is the brief statement issued by White House press secretary Sean Spicer:

Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the president regarding this issue. With respect to this subject, only the president or his attorneys are authorized to comment.

Where is the denial? The White House did not say that Ruddy's claim is untrue — a fact Ruddy pointed out to Politico in his response to the response:

Spicer issued a bizarre late-night press release that a) doesn’t deny my claim the president is considering firing Mueller and b) says I didn’t speak to the president about the matter — when I never claimed to have done so. Memo to Sean: focus your efforts on exposing the flimflam Russian allegations against POTUS and highlighting his remarkable achievements! Don’t waste time trying to undermine one of your few allies.

it seems natural for the people to rally around him.

farmerman wrote:

Obviously you have no factual information bout McCain and his capture than the crap you suck up from our "Liar -in-Chief" Trump.

I am fully aware of all the facts. If McCain doesn't want me to denounce him as a surrendering coward then he should stop knifing his fellow Republicans in the back.

What stops Republicans from behaving rationally
...First, unlike Senate and House Republicans during Watergate, there are few genuine leaders of principle whose sense of propriety is offended by Trump. The moral and intellectual quality of the current crew of Republicans pales in comparison to the type of Republicans who finally told Richard Nixon the jig was up. Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), House Minority Leader Jacob Rhodes (R-Ariz.) and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), who went to the White House, have few if any equals in today’s House and Senate. Those who do have the stature to move against Trump don’t necessarily have the base of the party, and those who have visions of the presidency dancing in their heads have been among the most craven apologists (e.g., Sen Tom Cotton (Ark.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.)) for Trump. In short, the charge that Republicans by and large put party above country is entirely valid. They’d rather let the country careen from disaster to disaster and scandal to scandal than stick their necks out.

Second, elected Republicans by and large cower in the shadow of Fox Non-News hosts, talk-radio opportunists and right-wing interest groups. They fear noticeable distancing from Trump will prompt the vultures of the right to swoop down up them, leaving only bones behind. So long as the characters who populate the right stick with Trump, elected Republicans, sadly, won’t lead. The tribal identification with party has robbed most in the GOP of common sense, good judgment and even patriotism...

Can Mueller be fired?

Yes, but not by the president, at least not directly. Only the acting attorney general — in this case, Rosenstein — can discipline or fire a special counsel, and then only for cause. According to the federal code, “The Attorney General may remove a Special Counsel for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies.” The president can, however, fire the deputy attorney general.

Re: oralloy (Post 6445062)
The Democrat Party is not going to be outlawed.

Jeff Sessions is reportedly going to dispute James Comey's sworn testimony

A new report says Attorney General Jeff Sessions will double down on a Department of Justice claim that former FBI Director James Comey misrepresented an interaction between the two during sworn testimony last week.

Jonathan Swan at the news website Axios says Sessions will repeat under oath a DOJ claim that he "was not silent"
following a conversation in which Comey, then the FBI director, informed him of a one-on-one meeting with President Donald Trump.

I don't agree at all that Clinton's transgressions were trivial...

Quote oralloy:

Quote:

An official exercising their discretion over whether to pursue a given case is not in any way wrongdoing.

You have it backwards. Trump was not in charge of pursuing the Flynn case and Russia investigation. The FBI was. Prosecutors decide not to pursue charges often because what the individual did was not too bad and could be hard to prove, so it wasn't worth the time and effort. However, if you are the President and you decide to try to get the head of the FBI to stop the pursuit of a case because he's a buddy of yours, that's obstruction of justice.

Remember, we are talking about a guy who lied about links to Russia, our nuclear enemy since the end of WWII. This is vital national security being protected by this investigation.

June 1995: Monica Lewinsky, 21, comes to the White House as an unpaid intern in the office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.

November 1995: Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton begin a sexual relationship, according to audiotapes secretly recorded later by Linda Tripp.

December 1995: Lewinsky moves into a paid position in the Office of Legislative Affairs, handling letters from members of Congress. She frequently ferries mail to the Oval Office.

1996

April 1996: Then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman transfers Lewinsky to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. Lieberman told The New York Times the move was due to "inappropriate and immature behavior" and inattention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky meets Tripp, a career government worker.

Summer 1996: Lewinsky begins to tell fellow Pentagon employee Linda Tripp of her alleged relationship with Clinton.

1997

August 1997: Tripp encountered Kathleen Willey coming out of Oval Office "disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off." Willey later alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton's lawyer, Bill Bennett said in the article that Linda Tripp is not to be believed.

Fall 1997: Tripp to begin taping conversations in which Lewinsky details her alleged affair with the president.

October 1997: Tripp meets with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, Lucianne & Jonah Goldberg at Jonah's apartment in Washington, according to a Newsweek report. The Goldberg's listen to a tape of Tripp/Lewinsky conversations.

October 1997: Lewinsky interviews with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson for a low level public affairs position.

December 1997: Lewinsky leaves the Pentagon.

Dec. 8: Betty Currie, Clinton's personal secretary, asks presidential pal Vernon Jordan to help Lewinsky find a job in New York.

Dec. 11: Lewinsky meets with Jordan and he refers her to several job leads.

Dec. 17: Lewinsky is subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, who is suing the president on sexual harassment charges.

Dec. 28: Lewinsky makes her final visit to the White House, according to White House logs, and was signed in by Currie. Lewinsky reportedly met privately with Clinton and he allegedly encouraged her to be "evasive" in her answers in the Jones' lawsuit.

January 1998

Jan. 7, 1998: Lewinsky files an affidavit in the Jones case in which she denies ever having a sexual relationship with President Clinton.

Officials in Washington State sued and got Trump's travel ban shot down because it violated Constitutional rights.