Special Counsel Mueller has empanelled a grand jury with respect to his investigation into collusion between members of the Trump Campaign and Russian agents.  At least that’s the premise.  It would not be beyond the realm of possibility that what is presented to this grand jury has little to do with the 2016 election and much to do with whatever he has found looking into all aspects of President Trump’s life and business dealings going back to before the election of Barack Obama.  We already know he has been asking questions about a real estate deal from 2008 where a Russian oligarch bought a Florida mansion from the president.

That’s the problem with the Mueller investigation.  He has gone way beyond what he was charged to do with his appointment as Special Prosecutor.

Can anyone’s life take the kind of scrutiny Special Counsel Mueller is subjecting Donald Trump to and come out clean?  Sorry, but I don’t know anyone.  One thing about the past is it’s never really the past.  Harvey Silverglate wrote a book (with the forward by Alan Dershowitz) called Three Felonies a Day.  In it, he maintained that just about everyone commits 3 felonies a day without even being aware of it because the statutes of today are so complicated that everyone is demonstrably a criminal if you look hard enough.

Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s order appointing as Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III includes the following:

The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including:

(i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and

(ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and

(iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a) (the Special Counsel statute).

It does not include searching through Donald Trump’s entire history to find any crime he may have ever committed so he can recommend federal criminal prosecution.  If what he finds is beyond the statute of limitations, it can be used politically by Democrats as they try their hand at impeachment.

John Hinderaker said of Mueller:

“I conclude that Mueller is not discharging his office of special counsel in good faith, but rather is acting as an agent of those who are trying to destroy or impede the Trump administration, and should be fired. Of course, whether President Trump thinks firing Mueller is politically viable is a separate question.

“In the meantime, it is good to see that Trump is at least pushing back against Mueller. It was reported this morning that Trump’s lawyers are investigating Mueller’s lawyers, with a focus on conflicts of interest. That is good, but only a beginning. Trump and others in his administration need to make clear that they consider Mueller’s investigation illegitimate; that he has gone far beyond the mandate he was given by the Acting Attorney General; that he has hired a partisan, biased staff; that he is serving as a tool of the Democratic Party; and that his investigation is a fraud. They should accord Mueller and his staff no credibility whatsoever.

“Trump is in a war. The good thing is, I think he knows it.”

It’s good that he knows it, but what can Donald Trump do?

It was obvious from the inception of this investigative charade that this was to be a witch hunt.  After all, the appointment of Mueller came about as the result of a crime committed by James Comey when he leaked his own FBI memos to a friend with the explicit purpose of forcing the appointment of a special counsel.  It strains credulity that it was just a coincidence his best friend was the one to get the appointment.

If that didn’t raise suspicions, all doubt should have been cast aside when he appointed exclusively progressive lawyers as staff (he now has 16 lawyers) to conduct the investigation:

1. Jeannie Rhee: Ms. Rhee is a former federal prosecutor.  Rhee also worked for the Clinton Foundation and donated $5,400 to PACs in support of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Rhee was once a senior adviser to Attorney General Eric Holder and is a former partner at Mueller's old law firm, WinterHale.
2. James Quarles: Mr. Quarles was an assistant prosecutor during the Watergate investigation.  He donated $1,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and is also a former partner at WinterHale.
3. Aaron Zebley: Mr. Zebly served with Mueller when he was the Director of the FBI and is also a former partner at WinterHale.
4. Andrew Weissmann: Andrew Weissmann, headed the high-profile investigation into the wrongdoings at Enron and earlier investigated organized crime when he worked for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York. According to Federal Election Commission records, he donated $2,300 to the Obama election campaign in 2008 after having given $2,300 to the Clinton campaign a year earlier and $2,000 to the DNC the year before that.
5. Greg Andes: Andes is the 16^th and last lawyer hired by Mueller (more to come?).  He worked as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Attorney General Eric Holder from 2010 to 2012.  His wife is a federal judge who was nominated to the bench by Barack Obama.
6. Brandon Van Grack, Van Grack an attorney for the DOJ, headed the grand jury investigation into Michael Flynn.
7. Lisa Page: Lisa Page is an FBI attorney who ran an investigation into a former business partner of Paul Manafort.
8. Peter Carr: Carr worked for the DOJ during the Obama presidency.
9. Adam Jed: Jed defended ObamaCare while serving at the DOJ Civil Division.
10. Elizabeth Prelogar: Prelogar who speaks Russian and like Drebeen also worked in the Office of Solicitor General is a former clerk to both Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
11. Andrew Goldstein: Goldstein is a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York who worked with Preet Bharara when he was the U. S. Attorney.  Bharara was fired by Trump.
12. Mark Dreeben: Dreeben is a Deputy Solicitor General. He is a criminal law expert who is widely known as a progressive.

This is the progressive dream team assembled by Mueller.  From the very beginning, this investigation has been a witch-hunt.  When you have an investigation in search of a crime, you can bet one will be found.  This leaves the president with only two options.

1. Fire Mueller

Mueller is a federal employee.  As the head of the Executive Branch, Trump can fire him for any reason he chooses.  Mueller is an underling, and as an employee, he serves at the pleasure of the president.  Hence, Trump is constitutionally empowered to terminate him and his investigation.  Terminating the investigation would be a form of prosecutorial discretion just as Obama exercised prosecutorial discretion to not prosecute illegal aliens.

While it would be legal for Trump to fire Mueller, it would definitely be politically unwise.  In fact, all hell would break loose.  The outcry from the media and the Democrats would be intensively shrill.   Still, it might not hurt him any more politically than he has already been damaged by leaks and fake news, talk of impeachment, and now, the empanelment of a grand jury.

2. Let Mueller Proceed With the Investigation

It’s altogether possible that Mueller is the high-integrity individual they all said he was when he was appointed a few months ago; he could eventually declare there was no crime and close down his investigation but now with the empanelment of his grand jury that seems unlikely.  Or possibly, whatever evidence he presents to his grand jury may not be sufficient for it to recommend indictment.  That also seems unlikely.  Since Trump is a citizen and no citizen is above the law, he can be indicted; it wouldn’t be surprising if Mueller were able to get the grand jury to indict Trump pertaining to one of the thousands of deals he has been a part of during his long career as a businessman.  If worse comes to worst, he could always pardon himself.  At which point the Democrats’ only remaining card to play would be impeachment, which is what they wanted all along anyway.

America used to be a free country but progressive policies cannot win in a free country, so the country has to go.

Mueller is prosecuting an investigation in search of a crime, and from the first day of Trump’s presidency, progressives have been dreaming of a criminal indictment or impeachment.  By the conduct of Robert S. Mueller III, they are willing to go to any lengths to get one or the other.