Can Trump fire the Deputy AG, appoint his own, then fire Sessions, so his Deputy can take over?

[Honeycombe8]

Or will the Deputy's next in line move up to the Deputy's job, if he fires the Deputy.

[sharedvalues]

1. He can keep firing people until he gets someone he wants

Anything he wants done, he can just keep firing people until someone obeys his order. If he fires anyone we risk chaos.

[FloridaBlues]

2. He can fire but new hire first has to get confirmed by senate

[LisaM]

3. I think that the reasoning behind the OP's question was to bypass that process.

At some point, the worm has to turn, even for Ryan and McConnell.

[Honeycombe8]

17. Heard someone in Senate say today that if he fires the AG, they would not confirm a new one.

Now that they know Trump's plan is to fire Mueller.

[sharedvalues]

4. No, there is an interim until confirmation

And a line of succession within each agency. I will guess the line of succession within the agency is given by regulation or internal policy, much of which can be changed by the white house.

So take a look at what just happened with OGE. Shaub resigned. Normally his deputy would be the interim director. But the succession rules were recently changed to allow the WH to choose who becomes interim director. So the White House hand picked the next director.

I'm not familiar with how succession works at DOJ, but we saw some of it during Nixon firing Cox. I'd bet the white house is studying this intently.

[uponit7771]

6. WOW !!! So Red Don can change the succession rules so he can choose the next AG? tia

[sharedvalues]

7. I don't know. Depends on DOJ rules, I'd guess

[Honeycombe8]

19. No. The AG needs confirmation. But the Deputy AG does not, I was thinking.

So since Congress may not confirm a NEW AG, I was thinking Trump was looking at bypassing that, and going to the Deputy AG instead. Soooo....I was wanting to know if Trump could appoint the Deputy AG himself, to replace Rosenstein, so he'd know he has a Deputy who will fire Mueller.

THEN he fires Sessions, and the Deputy moves up to be the acting AG...and fire Mueller. No confirmation needed. And he's got someone he knows will fire Mueller, w/o having to fire multiple people down the line.

[GulfCoast66]

5. It's not really that easy

The way the statutes are written Mueller is kind of a regular government employee, not a political appointee. He can be fired but only for violating certain well defined offenses, all of which he clearly has not and will not do.

If they fire him, he can, and I suspect will, file an appeal with the federal courts which I suspect will reinstate him. That will go on until it reaches the supreme court.

So he could become Trump's very own Freddie Kruger. Just when he thought he was dead he is back.

Now I was drinking bourbon when I read all about this. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. I am done with this subject!

[sharedvalues]

8. White House can order his budget reassigned

They can move his people to other projects. They can remove his entire budget. They can give Mueller other responsibilities and order him to spend time on them. I think. Unless this special prosecutor regulation has exceptions. But even then the president can rewrite the regulation.

The president would need to order Sessions to arrange those things - but that is easy.

[GulfCoast66]

9. I guess

Maybe. Sessions cannot have anything to do with it unless he 'un-recuses' himself which I do not see him doing.

Mueller's position and protection were put in by congress to prevent a president from firing him. And attempt to interfere with his mandate would be appealed to a Federal Court.

The president cannot totally change the law congress wrote.

If it gets to that point, which it might, we are in fucked up territory.

[sharedvalues]

11. A few things. Sessions recusal has force of law?

First, how can Sessions recusal be enforced? What happens if he starts doing Russia-related stuff? Doesn't look like Congress will intervene.

Special counsel process not controlled by a law, it's controlled by a regulation which I believe the president can change.
Detail fm author of reg: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/19/politics-could-still-block-muellers-investigation-i-know-i-wrote-the-rules/

[Honeycombe8]

21. Yes, he CAN sign an EO & delete the law that allows Special Counsel.

A poster posted a link below that says that.

That article calls it the nuclear option. If Trump is really guilty about something, I totally think Trump would do it, because he would have a lot to lose.

But the downside is that Congress wouldn't like that one bit...and would likely go after Trump. They would ramp up their investigations, and not be friendly about it, like they have been. They could file impeachment papers against him for obstruction. Congress has cards to play. This would be a last resort for Trump. If he uses it, then we all will know for sure that he is guilty of something really big.

[Honeycombe8]

20. Another poster posted a link that says that's not how that works.

The article says the AG can fire the Special Counsel for a number of reasons, one of which is conflict of interest, which seems to be what they may try.

There is no appeal. It's a done deal. Except for Congressional action. They can ramp up the Congressional investigations. AND they can merely appoint a NEW Special Counsel.

The article said that the investigation doesn't stop when the Special Counsel is fired. It continues, and then a new Special Counsel is appointed.

There is a nuclear option. It kills everything, incl. the investigation AND the law that allows Special Counsel. Trump could just do an EO killing the legislation, and the investigation. But...Congress wouldn't like that one bit, and would likely do something about that. Or would they?

[sharedvalues]

10. Legal answer appears to be yes. See below

Office of Legal Counsel appears to have said in 2007 they believe president can appoint anyone to replace a departing AG.

Link to tweet

Legal background: 2000 US law (not regulation as I said above) gives DOJ order of succession. But 2004 law appears to control, allowing more freedom.

[sharedvalues]

12. Three ways Muller can be fired (acslaw)

https://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/if-the-rumors-are-true-president-trump-and-the-firing-of-bob-mueller

[Honeycombe8]

16. Oooo. Scary. Thx. nt

[Sneederbunk]

13. Mueller and Rosenstein need to coordinate and Rosenstein file some indictments now.

Get the snowball rolling.

[TomCADem]

14. Why Bother? Just Force Sessions to Resign. Appoint a new AG Who Is Not Recused...

...then the new AG can then fire Mueller.

[Honeycombe8]

15. Because someone in Congress said they would NOT confirm any new AG.

Now that they know his game plan...to attack Mueller & fire him.

[TomCADem]

18. Republicans Are In The Majority in the Senate...

...and they want to shut down the Russia investigation as badly as Trump. They will confirm any loyalist with a pulse, who will then fire Mueller right after taking his oath.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Whoever said it was confident that a new AG would not be confirmed. Wish I could remember

who it was.

It wasn't a "We Democrats won't...." It was a "WE...in the Senate won't."

The Repubs are being very quiet. Some are in Trump's corner. Some are trying to get to the tax cut bill before all this blows up. And a number of them are very "concerned" about Trump. They talk to each other behind the scenes. Repubs are NOT going to come out and speak against Trump. But they are talking about this among themselves.

They won't come out and say, "We are NOT confirming Mr. X because we know Trump just wants you to fire Mueller." They'll just say "I can't confirm this person because....(insert any reason). So Trump would have to name someone else. Who wouldn't get confirmed.