Over the past few weeks, special counsel Robert Mueller has intensified his probe looking into the Russia scandal — first, Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communication with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and promised to cooperate with the investigation; then, Trump admitted to obstructing justice on Twitter; this was followed by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner being revealed to have ordered Flynn to talk to Kislyak in the first place; finally, Mueller has reportedly gotten hold of “tens of thousands” of emails from the Trump administration’s transition, including messages by Kushner.
The pressure is apparently getting to be too much for President Trump, who is rumored to have plans of firing Mueller on Dec. 22, according to California Reps. Jackie Speier and Adam Schiff.
“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week,” Speier said in a KQED Newsroom interview on Friday. “And on Dec. 22nd, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller.”
Speier described the possible scenario as “Saturday Massacre 2.0” and said it would trigger a constitutional crisis. “Without a doubt there would be an impeachment effort,” she said.
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Schiff voiced his concerns on Twitter. “I’m increasingly worried Republicans will shut down the House Intelligence Committee investigation at the end of the month,” he wrote. “Republicans have scheduled no witnesses after next Friday and none in [2018]. We have dozens of outstanding witnesses on key aspects of our investigation that they refuse to contact and many document requests they continue to sit on.”
Since March, our investigation has made important progress. We’ve interviewed numerous key witnesses behind closed doors, held public hearings, reviewed thousands of documents, identified new leads — all to understand and expose Russia's meddling and protect our democracy.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
It appears Republicans want to conduct just enough interviews to give the impression of a serious investigation.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Despite our repeated urging, Majority has declined to issue subpoenas in numerous avenues of the investigation, where there's simply no other way to get the information. Some refusals we’ve made public, like witnesses hiding behind nonexistent privileges, many others we haven’t.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Trump does not have the legal authority to fire Mueller, so if he decides to do so anyway, it would undoubtedly qualify as obstruction of justice. Whether or not Republicans would open their eyes cooperate with an impeachment effort if this happens remains to be seen, but so far, their track record during this presidency isn’t promising.
