Trump's plan to pardon Scooter Libby for obstruction is a first step setting a stage for pardoning his co-conspirators for obstruction. Leib and I explain that self-pardons and self-dealing pardons are invalid under the Constitution's fiduciary "faithful execution" language:
2/ Self-protective firings are also invalid. Firing Mueller or Rosenstein would be faithless execution, violating the Constitution's fiduciary duties against self-dealing and corruption. We contend that either could go to court to enjoin their firings.
3/ And this is a reminder that Trump's pardons won't save him from state criminal law, which covers the other target and most of their alleged crimes: slate.com/articles/news_…
4/ Even if Trump fires Mueller & Rosenstein, the investigation can continue. First, they referred the Michael Cohen case to SDNY, a separate set of permanent prosecutors. On Monday, I suggested this move was a deliberate strategy:
slate.com/news-and-polit…
slate.com/news-and-polit…
5/ Even if Trump fires Mueller, Rosenstein could appoint a new special counsel. And if he fires both, the next DOJ official becomes acting AG on Russia and could appoint a new special counsel. Trump would have to fire many people to install his own lackey to do his bidding.
6/ Firing Mueller (and Rosenstein) also doesn't mean that Mueller's team of prosecutors is automatically dissolved. After Nixon ordered the firing of special prosecutor Cox (Sat Night Massacre), Cox's team preserved their records and then continued their work under Leon Jaworski.
7/ And in event of firings, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the only committee that has taken its duty seriously so far, would step up its own investigation, potentially hiring Mueller, as long as one or two Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to proceed.
8/ And even if this committee failed to uphold its duty now, when the Democrats retake one or both Houses in Jan 2019, Congressional committees would change hands and take on their constitutional duty to check, balance, subpoena, investigate, and hold public hearings.
9/ And as I said before, Mueller has preserved future state prosecutions on the relevant crimes and the relevant co-conspirators with a careful strategy avoiding state double jeopardy laws. END. slate.com/articles/news_…
