[Andrew] McCabe has been at the center of ongoing tensions between the White House and the FBI and has reportedly been under pressure to quit from Trump, whose campaign is being investigated for possible collusion with Russia.
...after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe-stepping-down-n842176
Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-carter-page-secret-memo.html?referer=https://news.google.com/
A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it.
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent...
Mr. Trump is now again telling associates that he is frustrated with Mr. Rosenstein, according to one official familiar with the conversations.
...
Mr. Page, a former Moscow-based investment banker who later founded an investment company in New York, had been on the F.B.I.’s radar for years. In 2013, an investigation revealed that a Russian spy had tried to recruit him. Mr. Page was never charged with any wrongdoing, and he denied that he would ever have cooperated with Russian intelligence officials.
But a trip Mr. Page took to Russia in July 2016 while working on Mr. Trump’s campaign caught the bureau’s attention again, and American law enforcement officials began conducting surveillance on him in the fall of 2016, shortly after he left the campaign.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/29/trumps-most-desperate-move-yet-heres-what-pushing-out-rod-rosenstein-would-mean/?utm_term=.4140c6fe8d10
[Trump] has privately said [Rosenstein] is a threat to his presidency...
“Rosenstein is in charge of the Mueller probe. He picked Mueller and has testified under oath that he won't fire him absent clear misconduct,” Zeidenberg said. “So if Rosenstein goes, Trump would pick a new deputy attorney general who would no doubt be much more compliant to Trump.”
I have a question: Since the "better" opinion of legal scholars is that Trump, a sitting (better: reclining) president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office and since House Republicans will never impeach him, why does Trump consider Rosenstein "a threat to his presidency"? And doesn't Trump's stone-stepping here to oust Mueller increase the pressure to impeach?
Unless the "better" opinion is wrong, I don't know the answer to the first question.
The answer to the second is "Yes" but Trump may believe that even whacking Mueller would not be enough for the House to impeach. Then why not just fire Rosenstein and keep firing until he gets to some to some toady who will whack Mueller for him? Why stone-step to Mueller through McCabe? I don't know.
...after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe-stepping-down-n842176
Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-carter-page-secret-memo.html?referer=https://news.google.com/
A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it.
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent...
...
To obtain the warrant involving Mr. Page, the government needed to show probable cause that he was acting as an agent of Russia. Once investigators get approval from the Justice Department for a warrant, prosecutors take it to a surveillance court judge, who decides whether to approve it.
...
No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.
...
Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Mr. Rosenstein, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and now oversees his investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president. Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order...
To obtain the warrant involving Mr. Page, the government needed to show probable cause that he was acting as an agent of Russia. Once investigators get approval from the Justice Department for a warrant, prosecutors take it to a surveillance court judge, who decides whether to approve it.
...
No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.
...
Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Mr. Rosenstein, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and now oversees his investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president. Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order...
Mr. Trump is now again telling associates that he is frustrated with Mr. Rosenstein, according to one official familiar with the conversations.
...
Mr. Page, a former Moscow-based investment banker who later founded an investment company in New York, had been on the F.B.I.’s radar for years. In 2013, an investigation revealed that a Russian spy had tried to recruit him. Mr. Page was never charged with any wrongdoing, and he denied that he would ever have cooperated with Russian intelligence officials.
But a trip Mr. Page took to Russia in July 2016 while working on Mr. Trump’s campaign caught the bureau’s attention again, and American law enforcement officials began conducting surveillance on him in the fall of 2016, shortly after he left the campaign.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/29/trumps-most-desperate-move-yet-heres-what-pushing-out-rod-rosenstein-would-mean/?utm_term=.4140c6fe8d10
[Trump] has privately said [Rosenstein] is a threat to his presidency...
“Rosenstein is in charge of the Mueller probe. He picked Mueller and has testified under oath that he won't fire him absent clear misconduct,” Zeidenberg said. “So if Rosenstein goes, Trump would pick a new deputy attorney general who would no doubt be much more compliant to Trump.”
I have a question: Since the "better" opinion of legal scholars is that Trump, a sitting (better: reclining) president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office and since House Republicans will never impeach him, why does Trump consider Rosenstein "a threat to his presidency"? And doesn't Trump's stone-stepping here to oust Mueller increase the pressure to impeach?
Unless the "better" opinion is wrong, I don't know the answer to the first question.
The answer to the second is "Yes" but Trump may believe that even whacking Mueller would not be enough for the House to impeach. Then why not just fire Rosenstein and keep firing until he gets to some to some toady who will whack Mueller for him? Why stone-step to Mueller through McCabe? I don't know.
