Despite recent reports that the Russia investigation could last “at least another year,” Trump and his lawyers are still convinced that it’s winding down and will end soon.
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal report Monday repeating the belief that his client would be let off the hook in the near future. “I know we, collectively, the lawyers, are looking forward to an expeditious wrapping up of this matter,” he said.
Trump’s legal team has been predicting the probe’s end for weeks now. First, they expected it to wrap up “shortly after Thanksgiving,†then the prediction changed to shortly after New Year.
Insiders familiar with the investigation have told reporters there is no indication of it concluding any time soon, and some officials close to Trump fear that he’ll have a “meltdown” when he realizes how much longer it’s likely to continue.
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Though there seems to be no concrete proof that the probe will soon be put to rest, a few Democratic legislators, such as California Rep. Adam Schiff, have publicly expressed concerns that the GOP will try to shut it down before long.
“I’m increasingly worried Republicans will shut down the House Intelligence Committee investigation at the end of the month,” Schiff tweeted nearly two weeks ago. “Republicans have scheduled no witnesses after next Friday and none in 2017 [sic]. 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.”
A recent rumor that Trump was going to fire special counsel Robert Mueller — who he technically doesn’t have the authority to fire — on December 22 ultimately ended up being false, however there is evidence that the GOP is doing all it can to derail the investigation. After half a year of being grilled and attacked by Republicans, FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe announced his plans to retire in early 2018.
Trump and other Republicans have also multiplied their efforts to paint Mueller and his team as biased and the president’s lawyers additionally accused the special counsel of unlawfully obtaining thousands of emails regarding the administration’s White House transition. Mueller’s team subsequently dismissed the accusation as nonsense.
Two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the House Judiciary Committee that he has so far not seen any good cause to fire Mueller. When asked how he would respond if he were asked to fire the special counsel, Rosenstein said, “I would follow regulation. If there were good cause, I would act. If there were no good cause, I would not.”
While it looks like Mueller and the probe are safe for now, one has to wonder if the confidence Trump’s lawyers feel in the investigation ending soon is rooted in some belief that the president and GOP can somehow bring it to a close by putting pressure on the people most easy to break down.
