The former head of the Government Ethics Office Walter Shaub lit into President Donald Trump on Wednesday for suggesting that it’s not obstruction of justice to fire federal employees who investigate him.
As part of a morning Twitter tantrum over the Russia probe, Trump quoted attorney Joe diGenova, whom Trump nearly hired on as his personal attorney as part of his legal team to fight Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Questions surrounding his firing of former FBI Director James Comey is one of the multiple questions on the list that Mueller has for Trump. When Trump fired Comey, he literally bragged on television about it and how it hurt the Russia investigation.
Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office:
“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
If Trump did fire Comey to hurt the investigation, that could be considered obstruction of justice, which is why Mueller is asking the questions.
But Trump continues to argue that he has the power to fire anyone investigating him and that since he has the power, it’s not obstruction and therefore not a crime.
“The questions are an intrusion into the President’s Article 2 powers under the Constitution to fire any Executive Branch Employee…what the President was thinking is an outrageous…..as to the President’s unfettered power to fire anyone…” Joe Digenova, former US Attorney
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018
Walter Shaub, who is also an attorney, disagrees. He said:
What an outrageous tweet. The man seems to think he’s king, not president. It is true he has the power to fire anybody he wants, but what he’s really declaring with that tweet is the idea that a president can go around expressly firing people to prevent himself from being held accountable under the rule of law, that he will not be investigated.”
“He did that with Comey and went on TV and admitted publicly that that was his reason, that he doesn’t like being investigated. And the timing now is a message to Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller and Jeff Sessions that he still doesn’t feel that he should be investigated.”
Shaub then explained that firing people for investigating him should be an impeachable offense.
“Whether or not this is a crime, if he continues to go down this road and fire people for investigating him, how many will it take for Congress to wake up and make a decision that the rule of law in this country matters and the president isn’t above that rule of law? The penalty, if he goes around repeatedly firing people who are investigating him, should be impeachment.”
Here’s the video via YouTube.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti agrees with Shaub.
A President can’t fire employees due to their race or religion. He can’t fire employees in exchange for a bribe. And he can’t fire employees to obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation into his friends. https://t.co/ByLVZbS61u
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 2, 2018
Of course, it wasn’t long before Trump threatened to abuse his power.
A Rigged System – They don’t want to turn over Documents to Congress. What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal “justice?” At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018
Trump knows Mueller is closing in on him, so he is clearly laying the groundwork to fire everyone involved in the investigation to kill it. But killing the investigation is just about like admitting that he is guilty.
Congress needs to do something to stop Trump before the rule of law becomes a thing of the past.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot.
