Alabama Republican Roy Moore remains defiant after a fifth woman has come forward to recount being pursued and—in this case—sexually assaulted by Moore when she was a teen and he was in his 30s. Moore is flatly denying Beverly Young Nelson’s allegations, saying that “I can tell you without hesitation this is absolutely false. I never did what she said I did. I don’t even know the woman.” But with, for instance, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana calling the accusations “far more persuasive than the denials” and other Senate Republicans starting to line up against Moore, Moore’s political future is in doubt.
Senate Republicans have to consider whether, if Moore is elected, they would be willing to vote to expel him, something that would take a two-thirds vote of the Senate. But first, Alabama Republicans have a decision. The state party’s central steering committee is holding a call this week to decide whether to pull Moore’s nomination. It’s unlikely, though, that they’ll take action against Moore, and it’s not clear what would happen if they do:
Under state law, it is too late to remove Moore’s name from the ballot or replace him with another candidate. If his nomination his withdrawn but he still gets the most votes in the Dec. 12 election against Democratic nominee Doug Jones, it’s unclear what happens. Some interpret the law as saying the election would be null and void and the governor would need to call a new one, while others say the second-place finisher would be declared the winner, whether that’s Jones or a write-in. Lawsuits would be likely.
If Moore remains the official Republican nominee and if he wins, expelling him from the Senate could set up a dangerous possibility, former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal warns. If Moore is expelled, one of the leading candidates for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to appoint would be … attorney general and former senator Jeff Sessions. That in turn could lead directly to the end of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russia ties:
If Sessions returns to the Senate, however, Trump will nominate another attorney general. And you can imagine what kind of litmus test he’d have for his new choice: Trump would want someone willing to shut down the Russia investigation. The president himself has said that he wouldn’t have made Sessions attorney general if he knew that Sessions would recuse from the Russia investigation.
Notably, a new attorney general would not even need to fire Mueller. Mueller serves under regulations that govern the appointment of a special counsel. I had the privilege of drafting those regulations nearly 20 years ago. We all knew at the time that they were the creation of the attorney general, and could therefore be revoked by the attorney general, too. So a new attorney general could simply repeal the regulations. Mueller would go poof, and his investigation would cease. Any facts, prosecutions, and investigative material that Mueller had uncovered would then lie under the supervision of the new appointee, selected by a president who’s been vocal about his objections to Sessions’s recusal.
Two things stand between America and this possibility. The first is the voters of Alabama. The second is the honor and integrity of the Republican Party … so Alabama voters may well be a better bet, as red as that state is.
Can you chip in $3 to help Doug Jones finish strong and beat Roy Moore? The fate of not just the Senate but the special counsel's investigation might depend on it.