[ad_1]
What would the Rosenstein exit mean for Mueller's investigation in Russia?
If the president can convince Rosenstein to resign – or even plausibly present the dismissal as a resignation – Trump gets the power to bypass the Senate confirmation process under the Federal Vacancy Reform Act. He may replace Rosenstein by any official who has already been confirmed by the Senate to another office.
The question of "did he resign or not?" Is likely to end up being tried by the Senate Judiciary Committee – the same body that has been so reluctant to find the substance of the allegations against candidate Brett Kavanaugh of Trump Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court.
The Trump White House has confused the past as to whether appointees resign or have been fired. After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson resigned, Chief of Staff John Kelly told a crowd of reporters a particularly humiliating account of how he actually fired Tillerson.
Shooting Rosenstein will not save Trump.
At Veterans Affairs in March, the Trump White House carried out an opposite maneuver, claiming that fallen secretary David Shulkin had resigned after he was fired.
But these confusions of the past were usually motivated by meanness, vengeance or ordinary political buttocks. Political and constitutional issues are at stake this time. If Trump can sell the claim that Rosenstein has resigned, he can buy himself substantial impunity for months, months in which the GOP can lose control of the Senate. By the time a new Senate can reaffirm its authority over the Department of Justice, the Mueller Inquiry could have been dead long ago.
Break the glass
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the publisher or write to [email protected].
Source link
