Memo to President Trump: Shut up and govern.
Memo to congressional leaders, Cabinet members, and senior White House staff: If President Trump orders the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller, mass “honor” resignations by Cabinet officials and staff should follow, and an impeachment inquiry should immediately commence.
Important clarification: An impeachment inquiry is just that — an open investigation, not a show trial with a predetermined outcome.
Let’s take these one at a time. First, as to Trump’s own role: The biggest reason everybody obsesses about Mueller’s Russia-related investigation is because Trump himself obsesses about it. He’s the one who, almost daily, focuses national attention on it rather than letting it proceed apace, somewhat in the background. In doing so, he is harming both the country and, bizarrely, his own legal and political standing.
Trump harms the country by undermining faith in our system of justice, by appearing to put the president’s own interests ahead of the national interest in countering Russian perfidy, and by keeping the public square churning in anger, suspicion, and conspiracy theories that pollute civil society. He harms himself by helping his opponents build the case that he is trying to obstruct justice. And his loud, nearly unhinged protestations make him sound like a man with something bad to hide.
As noted conservative Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said over the weekend, technically addressing Trump lawyer John Dowd, “If you have an innocent client, Mr. Dowd, act like it.” Then, directly referencing Trump himself, Gowdy added: “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should want the investigation to be as fulsome and thorough as possible.”
Meanwhile, presidential appointees and staff, as well as congressional leaders, have a duty to the country superseding any supposed responsibility to be “loyal” to the president. It is an essential tenet of a constitutional republic that no man, not even the president, is above the law. Any effort to undermine a legitimate investigation, especially by firing the lead investigator, is an affront to our system of justice.
And Mueller’s investigation is legitimate, and important. Russia is a hostile nation led by a murderous thug. It indisputably tried to undermine our democracy by monkeying with our election, and it indisputably acted largely to help Trump. The main focus of Mueller’s investigation is not domestic, criminal “collusion.” It is primarily a counterintelligence investigation, albeit one with a mandate to pursue criminal charges if the facts so warrant.
Any effort to blunt Mueller’s probe is thus, in effect, an attempt to hobble American countermeasures against Russian misbehavior. That’s why, in a very public way, congressional leaders should universally tell Trump to cease his attacks against the special counsel. And it is why senior staff and Cabinet members, also publicly, should say they will resign en masse if Trump forces Mueller’s ouster.
It is at least arguable, and reasonable, to posit that Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey — with Trump’s own admission that Comey’s conduct of the Russia investigation was the major factor in Trump’s decision — combined with the constant verbal abuse of the whole process and his pressure on senior Justice Department officials, amounts to an effort to hinder justice. Firing Mueller, in turn, could be seen as turning the hindrance into actual “obstruction” of justice, legally actionable.
Constitutionally, Trump has the authority to order Mueller’s firing. But in terms of the amorphous standards for impeachment — which is a political penalty for serious offenses, usually but not always criminal, against the constitutional order — obstruction of justice can be committed even by someone technically using constitutional authority, but in a way nonetheless abusive to the system.
That’s why the firing of Mueller should immediately catalyze an impeachment inquiry. Such a firing so clearly would “obstruct” (in common parlance, whether or not in some technical-legal sense) the course of justice that it should require Congress to officially wrestle with the thorny question of whether this presidential misbehavior rises (or falls) to “impeachable” levels.
Such proceedings should be conducted with utmost seriousness, and with open minds. Ordinary political allegiances, both Right and Left, pro- and anti-Trump, should be irrelevant. The question ought not to be who gains political advantage, or how obnoxious Trump is. The question should look to long-term precedent: Without regard to party or person, is such an act of obstruction one that should, or should not be, punishable by removal from the nation’s highest office?
Of course, Trump can avoid the whole question if he stops recklessly playing with constitutional fire.
Quin Hillyer (@QuinHillyer) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former associate editorial page editor for the Washington Examiner, and is the author of Mad Jones, Heretic, a satirical literary novel published in the fall of 2017.
