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This is an extraordinary time that demands what should be an ordinary response from our Congress—ordinary in the sense that the Constitution has envisioned this and history shows there's a path for our elected officials to follow. Ordinary in that we know that the system works in the way the founders intended. They gave us the blueprint, one that most of the current Senate was alive to watch play out in real time during Watergate.
But if they need a reminder, here's Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of Congress from New York who gained national attention as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during Congress's investigation.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox because he feared that Cox was close to getting White House tape recordings that could have implicated him in the Watergate cover-up. I was a member of the House Judiciary Committee then, a bipartisan majority of which voted that the firing was part of the Watergate cover-up (similar to an obstruction of justice), a grave abuse of presidential power, and constituted an impeachable offense.
Instead of derailing the investigation, firing the special prosecutor ensured that it would continue. When the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, both Republicans, resigned rather than obey Nixon and fire Cox, the country realized something terrible had happened. The public outcry forced the selection of a new special prosecutor, who was able to get possession of the tapes, thanks to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling (which included Republican justices appointed by Nixon). The tapes showed Nixon’s guilt beyond any doubt. In fact, the Saturday Night Massacre, as the events surrounding Cox’s firing were dubbed, triggered the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon and marked the beginning of the end of his presidency.
Nixon’s tactics backfired because the system of checks and balances clicked into place; the public demanded that the president be held accountable for his actions, and Republicans stopped defending him at every turn, putting country above party.
But will that happen again now?
It must happen again now. As the Constitution demands. We know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is up to his eyebrows in Trump's corruption, to the extent that he was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has not distinguished himself given his willingness to manufacture a memo for Trump to provide an excuse for FBI Director James Comey's firing.
We can't look to the Department of Justice to handle this. Just as it happened before, it has to happen again. The Congress, specifically the Senate, has to act. Holtzman, again, reminds us how: "The Senate should refuse to confirm anyone for FBI Director whose record does not exemplify the highest qualifications, unimpeachable integrity, and complete lack of partisanship. It should also demand as a condition of confirmation that the FBI’s ongoing Russia investigation be independent." That's how it happened in 1973, when the Senate refused to confirm Elliot Richardson as Attorney General until they had the guarantee of an independent special prosecutor.
That has to happen again, as it is supposed to.