Obstruction Aftershocks

As predicted in yesterday's entry, the aftershocks continued following the startling revelation that Donald Trump had ordered the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating him and his associates for a variety of potential crimes. Only when the White House Counsel refused to carry out the order and threatened to resign did the President back down.

That stunning news was followed by a second, astonishing revelation yesterday when Foreign Policy magazine broke the story (link here) that Trump personally directed senior White House aides "to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation."

Such an action would be no less than four criminal violations of federal laws prohibiting obstruction of justice, specifically 18 U.S. Code Chapter 73 (details here): (1) influencing or injuring an officer; (2) obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees; (3) obstruction of criminal investigations; and (4) tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.

Before the Foreign Policy piece even broke, Politico published a compelling article written by a former federal prosecutor about the legal quicksand in which Trump now finds himself (link here). The item has the title "It’s Now Likely Mueller Thinks Trump Obstructed Justice" and the subhead "Thursday’s bombshell news points toward one conclusion: The special counsel has the goods on the President."

At The New Yorker, legal expert Jeffrey Toobin wrote a piece (link here) making some similar arguments. His article is titled "The Answer to Whether Trump Obstructed Justice Now Seems Clear."

Over at Bloomberg Media, Tim O'Brien wrote a piece (link here) with a headline that says it all: "Trump Will Try to Fire Mueller. Again."

Trump has said point blank in interviews more than once that he thinks he can do nearly anything he wants as President, a fatal miscalculation that also doomed Richard Nixon. And considering that he has at least once nearly fired Mueller while ignoring the firestorm of protest that followed his firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was also investigating him, there's no reason to believe Trump won't try the same reckess tactic yet again.

The fallout from these revelations about Trump's obstruction will be fascinating to watch in the coming week. Stay tuned.