How Rick Perry could fire Robert Mueller

Washington Post ^ | 07/27/2017 | Phillip Bump

[Responsibility2nd]

Paul Butler is a professor of law at Georgetown University. In an interview with The Post on Thursday, he explained the various ways in which Trump could replace Sessions, if Sessions resigned or were fired.

There are four.

1. Trump nominates a new attorney general who is confirmed by the Senate....

~snip~

2. Trump lets Rosenstein take over. As noted above, this is not Trump’s preferred recourse, since Rosenstein appointed Mueller and could fire him now if he wanted to....

~snip~

3. Trump can appoint someone while the Senate is recessed....

~snip~

This power has been abused. President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of members of the National Labor Relations Board was thrown out by the Supreme Court in 2014...

~snip~

That leaves the fourth option:

4. The Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. This was the heart of what Butler discussed with us....

~snip~

So, in other words, if Sessions were to resign, President Trump could appoint, say, Rick Perry, the secretary of energy, to be the acting attorney general? “The answer is yes,” Butler said, since Perry has already been appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

But there’s a catch....

[Mr. K]

"...This power has been abused. President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of members of the National Labor Relations Board was thrown out by the Supreme Court in 2014......"

Bull$hit... Odumb$hit 'declared' the Congress to be in recess when it wasn't. He was overruled in court specifically on this.

[Ohioan]

Think the Administration should look for an opportunity—the first time a lower Court gets involved in some aspect of the investigation—to seek a writ of prohibition, based upon the clear crossing of a line by the “investigation,” as an attackable entity. (Just a non-fleshed out thought, at this point.)

[Responsibility2nd]

Good points.

And we must remember there was actual credible charges against Nixon. There are NONE against Trump. And I don’t expect there will be any.

This is why I believe Trump should ignore Mueller. Leave him alone. He won’t find anything.

Instead Trump should rally what little Congressional support he has into getting his own Special Investigator. One who will go after the crooks and criminals of the Obama years. And there are dozens of them.

[LS]

Please stop with the “recess” appointments.

This would require Yertle to ditch the traditional “pro forma” standing of the Senate while they are in recess. Yes, it can be done.

No, Yertle won’t do it. Under NORMAL circumstances it would be unlikely because it would mean surrendering a “power” of the Senate (and himself) to help Trump. But under current circumstances? He wouldn’t put himself on the line like this.

There will be no recess appointments because there will be no recess.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Or he could just recess appoint Rudy. Bush recess appointed Bolton to the UN.

[odawg]

If they would only use a tenth of that energy to try to protect Trump.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

drastic Nixonian results.

Not drastic Clintonian results? I remain unconvinced that there are 20 Republican Senators who hate Trump enough to end their careers by treating Trump worse than the Democrat Senators treated Clinton.

It would delegitimate the Republican Party, as voters resolved to vote "second party."

[Voluntaryist]

;)