Which mean should Rosenstein be fired, Robert Mueller's boss would almost certainly become Benczkowski, a person with no prosecutorial experience whatsoever, somebody already tainted, if not compromised by Russian money laundering, and somebody who worked for Donald Trump's campaign directly. And no, he hasn't said that he would recuse himself should that become the case.
Yesterday's major slew of Russian indictments by Mueller included a number of huge developments.
This is pretty huge, as we now have Mueller flat out saying that a dozen GRU agents raided the Clinton campaign and stole information. The Russians conducted an operation to attack our elections, which is what I told you guys 23 months ago. At the very least Trump should cancel that meeting with Putin and start expelling Russian diplomats like baseballs in a pitching machine.
We're finally getting to the point where Trump won't be able to let the Mueller probe continue without permanent damage to himself.
Both these events happened within the last several days. Put them together, especially with the knowledge that Rosenstein briefed Trump on the Friday Russian indictments before Trump left for Europe and you arrive at one conclusion:
The move by the GOP to shut down the Mueller probe has immediately shifted into a new, much more urgent phase.
House conservatives are preparing a new push to oust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to three conservative Capitol Hill sources — putting the finishing touches on an impeachment filing even as Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 election.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, in fact, had the impeachment document on the floor of the House at the very moment that Rosenstein spoke to reporters and TV cameras Friday.
Conservative GOP lawmakers have been plotting to remove Rosenstein for weeks, accusing him of slow-walking their probe of FBI agents they’ve accused of bias against President Donald Trump.
Democrats contend Republicans’ fixation on Rosenstein is really an effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, who reports to Rosenstein and has been making inroads in his investigation of the Russian election interference plot. Mueller’s probe has entangled members of Trump’s inner circle and Trump has increasingly assailed it as a politically motivated “witch hunt” as it’s presented greater danger to him and his allies.
Conservative sources say they could file the impeachment document as soon as Monday, as Meadows and Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) look to build Republican support in the House. One source cautioned, however, that the timing was still fluid.
I'm not sure how far this will go, it seems almost certain that this will be political cover for Trump to fire Rosenstein and replace him with the newly-installed Benzckowski. How quickly this will happen, I don't know, but if House Republicans go through with this, expect Trump to make his move as it will be his best chance.
Mueller’s indictments open the door to future collusion and conspiracy charges. Having read through the indictments there are painstakingly blatant statements that all but guarantee future indictments are coming. It’s the prosecutorial equivalent of announcing checkmate in eight moves, or an action movie hero announcing his intent to kick the bad guy’s ass is a promise, not a threat.
House Republicans are scared, scared to the point of screamingly obvious interference by the attempted impeachment of Rosenstein being the more preferable option both politically and legally right now then letting the Mueller probe continue. That should tell you everything that we need to know about possible guilt.
I want to be wrong here, I want this to be a stupid gamble by panicked House Republicans to give away the game and get people to talk Trump down, but Trump isn't in town right now to be talked down, now and is he? He'll be meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland on Monday.
If Trump follows through as I believe he will, from that point, all bets are off.
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