Why Trump Should Stay the Course With Mueller

President Donald Trump's supporters are pushing hard for him to do something about Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The president himself and his legal team are stressing cooperation, though that position can change in a matter of hours in this administration (and may have changed if Thursday night's comments on the Justice Department are any guide).

So what if Trump fires Mueller? On a Constitutional level, any presidential effort to shut down, derail, impede, or otherwise obstruct any prosecutorial investigation is not only ethically wrong, and not only a crime, but a clear abuse of power. Presidents simply are not supposed to intervene in the process in that way, personally selecting who to prosecute and who not to prosecute. A presidential effort to shut down an investigation into his family, his campaign or administration, his business, or himself would be even worse.

To call such actions "impeachable" is way too lenient. That is, impeachment, like all prosecutions, require some discretion, and there are always going to be close calls. Trump uses his office to advertise his properties; that's unethical and in some sense an abuse of power and a violation of the Constitution, but most people wouldn't think that it alone is worth impeaching the president over, although add up several of these types of violations and the case starts getting stronger. But attempting to end an investigation into himself and his associates would absolutely demand it unless the president backed down. (And even if he did back down, the grounds for impeachment and conviction are solid).