So if Mueller is fired then what is the procedure from the FBI involved in the case?
What occurred during Watergate? Or would this be different somehow?
= new reply since forum marked as read
Is Trump worse off if he tries?
Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during George W. Bush's administration, has suggested the President will only come under further scrutiny if he tries to fire Mueller.
"I don't see how firing Mueller gives Trump relief from the investigation. More likely the opposite, since it would call Trump into greater suspicion. Just as it got worse for him after he fired (former FBI Director James) Comey, it would get yet worse for him if he fired Mueller," Goldsmith tweeted.
Jack Goldsmith
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@jacklgoldsmith
Replying to @jacklgoldsmith
6/ So I don’t see how firing Mueller gives Trump relief from the investigation. More likely the opposite, since it would call Trump into greater suspicion. Just as it got worse for him after he fired Comey, it would get yet worse for him if he fired Mueller.
3:48 AM - Dec 18, 2017
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"
T)he overall investigation has already yielded fruit and there is a clear justification for it to continue," he added.
Just as the FBI's counterintelligence investigation had been looking into contacts between Russian operatives and individuals associated with the Trump campaign prior to Mueller's appointment in May -- the FBI's probe would not necessarily shut down even if Mueller were out of the picture.
"FBI Director (Christopher) Wray would continue to investigate until ordered not to," Goldsmith said.
Jack Goldsmith
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@jacklgoldsmith
Replying to @jacklgoldsmith
5/ Pressure in and out of DOJ to appoint Mueller’s successor, as opposed to killing investigation, would be enormous, as would pressure to appoint someone of integrity/independence who would continue pushing hard. FBI Dir. Wray would continue to investigate until ordered not to.
3:46 AM - Dec 18, 2017
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What's at stake if he does it anyway?
The number two Republican in the Senate has said it would be a "mistake" for Trump to fire Mueller and Democrats would undoubtedly go ballistic if he tried.
Yet the legislative proposals floated over the summer to protect the special counsel have, thus far, stalled.
And even if someone tried to file a lawsuit in federal court to stop the President -- it's difficult to envision a realistic scenario where a challenger with adequate standing would have a legal leg to stand on.
As the head of the executive branch, the President is ultimately in charge of law enforcement.
"The President under our Constitution has the prosecution power. So prosecutors serve as an extension of the Presidency," Katyal has said.
But the very idea that Trump might try to fire or order the firing of the prosecutor -- who now charged the President's former campaign aides with federal crimes and secured a cooperation deal with the President's former national security adviser -- strikes some legal experts as an illustration of the inherent flaw in our constitutional design.
Trump is "a stress test for this particular constitutional problem," Harvard Law School Professor Noah R. Feldman told CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller/index.html
