I haven't been a fan of special prosecutors. I remember Kenneth Starr far too well. Then again, that was a statutory error; Starr had no one to rein him in. The only problem with the DOJ appointing a special prosecutor would be Jeff Sessions could rein her/him in.
But necessity is a mother:
Trump has been undermining investigations for months. In February, he compromised the probes of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees alike by enlisting House committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Senate committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), both allies of his, to rebut negative press stories related to the Trump team’s ties to Russia. Then he further undermined the House probe by secretly inviting Nunes to the White House to view intelligence reports — a decision that ultimately led to Nunes recusing himself from the investigation. And this week, Trump undermined the FBI’s investigation into the Russia matter by firing the director who was leading it and then claiming he’d done so on the advice of Rod Rosenstein, the top Justice Department official overseeing it.
It all feels a bit familiar.
“It is so clumsy and butchered the way he handled it, that the natural conclusion you would come to is that he is trying to block the Russian investigation,” said John Dean, who served as White House counsel for President Richard Nixon. “But again, is he that foolish and blatant? It makes it more likely for a special prosecutor [to be appointed]. And it makes it more likely that the FBI is going to double down.”
Might as well do what needs to be done and damn the consequences. Trump works that way. Gotta fight fire with fire, right?
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