I suspect a major motivation for Trump’s sudden spring cabinet cleaning fever is that he feels that firing Jeff Sessions will not appear to be as nakedly addressed to obstructing the Mueller investigation if it happens amid a flurry of unrelated firings. I think Trump is saving the Sessions firing until the Senate closes its session tonight.
The reason Trump would wait for the Senate to close session is that the Senate will be beginning a two week recess. Once the Senate has recessed, Trump will be entitled to fire Sessions and slide Scott Pruitt from EPA into the Attorney General slot as a recess appointment without facing Senate confirmation until later. No doubt Pruitt has already given Trump assurances that he will neither recuse himself nor refrain from firing Mueller.
It would seem on the surface that Mueller would have no option but to go quietly at that point. However, I think there is another possibility. A possibility that will leave Trump in a far weaker position than he was before the attempted firing. The beauty of this possibility is that it won’t require the Republican Congress to suddenly grow either a conscience or a spine. In fact, it will in no way involve Congress.
The system of checks and balances that our constitution provides to ensure that we will not devolve into an autocratic or monarchical system is predicated upon a balance of powers between three co-equal branches of government — the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Right now the executive branch is out of control and the legislative branch has demonstrated almost no willingness to check the executive.
But so far we have not heard much from the judicial branch with respect to the limit of the President’s ability to prevent himself from being investigated in the absence of congressional will sufficient to impeach him.
If I were Mueller, and Attorney General Pruitt attempted to fire me. I would immediately file for an injunction in Federal Court. The Attorney General may have apparent authority to fire Mueller at will, but at this time, I’m confident that Mueller could easily demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt, that his firing is motivated by the President’s desire to obstruct Mueller’s investigation into the President’s own criminal misconduct. Once Mueller has demonstrated that his firing has an unlawful purpose, the Federal Courts will be well within their rights to issue an injunction against Mueller’s firing. If that happens endgame will truly have begun for the Trump administration. Trump, at the very moment that he thinks he has broken free from the web Mueller has spun around him, will have only enmeshed himself more tightly.