The White House is building a case to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal that said allies are being told to attack Rosenstein on television.
The idea is to launch attacks on Rosenstein, the Justice Department official overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, in a way that avoids making it appear that Trump is meddling in the probe.
One person who spoke to the president this week told The Wall Street Journal that Rosenstein’s ouster is “a matter of when, not if.”
For his part Rosenstein seems to be at peace with the possibility.
Courtesy of NBC News:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has struck a stoic and righteous tone in private conversations he has had this week about the fate of his job as President Donald Trump has launched public criticism against him and considered firing him, according to three sources who have spoken to Rosenstein.
In those conversations, he has repeated the phrase, "Here I stand," a reference to Martin Luther's famous quote, "Here I stand, I can do no other." Coincidentally, former FBI Director James Comey, whom Rosenstein fired, repeated the same phrase to President George W. Bush in a conversation that has been widely reported and that Comey describes in his forthcoming book.
One source who spoke to Rosenstein said he seemed fully aware he may soon lose his job and was at peace with the possibility, confident he had done his job with integrity.
Rosenstein might be all Zen about losing his job, but that does not include everybody else.
Courtesy of HuffPo:
If President Donald Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or any other officials involved in the Russia investigation, he faces the prospect of hundreds of thousands of activists immediately turning out to protest all over the country.
A coalition of grassroots activists, unions, policy organizations and good governance groups have, for months, been plotting to quickly and forcefully respond to any perceived interference with the investigation. And with Trump increasingly vocal about his displeasure with the inquiry, these organizers say they’re stepping up their efforts.
The coalition, calling its would-be gatherings “Nobody Is Above The Law” protests, released “red lines” that it said the president or his administration would have to cross to trigger the protests. These include firing any of the investigators or their supervisors, pardoning key witnesses or otherwise interfering with the investigation.
However I seriously doubt that this will deter Trump, who seems absolutely determined to do something to interfere in this Mueller probe.
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