The Flynn plea makes it difficult for Trump to can the special counsel without inviting charges of a cover-up and sparking a constitutional crisis.The Dec. 1
plea deal struck with President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, marked a big step forward in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. It may also have provided some protection for Mueller against being fired by the president-and helped ensure that his probe will continue, even if one day he's not leading it.
Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal agents about his communications with the Russian ambassador last December. Given the other
potential crimes that Flynn may have committed, including his failure to disclose that he was being paid millions of dollars by a Turkish company while serving as a top official in the White House, the relatively light charge signaled to many that Flynn had something significant worth sharing.
As Mueller's probe has gotten closer to Trump's inner orbit, speculation has risen over whether Trump might find a way to shut it down. The Flynn deal may make that harder. For one thing, it shows that Mueller is making progress. "Any rational prosecutor would realize that in this political environment, laying down a few markers would be a good way of fending off criticism that the prosecutors are burning through money and not accomplishing anything," says Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor now at Duke Law School.
Comment: It sounds like
Businessweek is under the illusion that Mueller is making genuine progress. Perhaps Trump will not be able to dismiss the Mueller investigation so easily, but that is not because there is any substance to the 'Russian collusion' accusation. Rather, that's because his accusers are persistently trying to find excuses to impeach him. See:
Mueller's investigation is about obstruction, which means it's about impeachmentwhere we read:
1.) There is a great deal of misinformation in the commentariat about how prosecutors build cases.
2.) For all practical purposes, the collusion probe is over. While the "counterintelligence" cover will continue to be exploited so that no jurisdictional limits are placed on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, this is now an obstruction investigation.
3.) That means it is, as it has always been, an impeachment investigation.
[...]
Bottom line: If the FBI had a collusion case of some kind, after well over a year of intensive investigation, Flynn and Papadopoulos would have been pressured to plead guilty to very serious charges - and those serious offenses would be reflected in the charges lodged against Manafort. Obviously, the pleas and the indictment have nothing to do with collusion because Mueller has no collusion case.
[...]
The president may not be prosecuted in a criminal judicial proceeding for exercising his discretion, however objectionably, in executive matters over which the courts have no power of review. If Mueller tried to indict him, Trump would have unfettered discretion to fire Mueller and to direct the Justice Department to drop the case.
You may not like that, but that's the way it is. It is not, however, the end of the matter.
Any powers can be abused. When executive powers are abused, Congress retains the constitutional authority to impeach and remove the president. Obstruction of an FBI investigation may not be realistically prosecutable in court, but there is congressional precedent - in the Nixon and Clinton situations - for obstruction to be a "high crime and misdemeanor" triggering impeachment. Undoubtedly, abuse of the pardon power would also be an impeachable offense, even though it is not reviewable by the courts.
I continue to believe that this is the real danger for President Trump: A report by the special counsel, either through the grand jury or some other vehicle, concluding (a) that the president had obstructed the FBI's investigation of Flynn and of Trump-campaign collusion with Russia, and (b) recommending that the matter be referred to Congress for consideration of next steps, potentially including impeachment and removal.
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