Thread by @ThePlumLineGS

With help from a legal expert, I tried to deconstruct the new White House letter attacking the Mueller probe as illegitimate.

At its core, the argument is absurd. It amounts to a declaration that Trump is beyond accountability entirely.

My new piece:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

Here's the crux.

Emmet Flood claims Mueller had no right to say Trump is *not* exonerated.

But Flood doesn't address *why* Mueller did this -- because he couldn't indict.

The resulting construction is an absurdity that puts Trump beyond accountability:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

One other key point here:

Mueller declined to make the call on Trump's criminality out of an *abundance of fairness to Trump.*

Now the White House and Emmet Flood are exploiting that in a way that's saturated in bad faith:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

One more point.

Here's an interesting question: What happens if Mueller testifies to Congress, and he's asked why he declined to exonerate Trump?

Here's one possibility:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…