Amid the FBI’s surprise raid on the offices and home of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, there has been a steep uptick in partisan lawmakers and pundits pressuring Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counselor Robert Mueller’s investigation into both the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice.
Sally Yates, the former Deputy Attorney General who was ultimately fired by Trump for her failure to uphold his illegal travel ban, weighed in on a potential firing with a rare, unrestrained warning.
Make no mistake about what’s at stake here: firing Rosenstein would be the same unconscionable assault on the rule of law as firing Mueller. He controls scope of the Mueller investigation and what becomes public. Both D’s and R’s should reject sham excuses to fire Rosenstein.1/2
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) April 14, 2018
2/2 And you can’t fire a prosecutor because you’re unhappy he approved a search warrant that relates to your own conduct. No one is above the law.
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) April 14, 2018
Even the White House has weighed in on the impending scandal, going so far as to claim that Trump could fire the special counselor himself.
Trump’s waffling has led to an outcry from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to reject calls to do what would ultimately amount to a constitutional crisis in firing either Mueller or Rosenstein. Of course, this presidency has never been an exemplar of restraint.
Trump would be well served to follow the free legal advice from Mrs. Yates, as his own counsel seems to be embroiled in some problems of their own these days.
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