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The Special Counsel can only be terminated by Whitaker for "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause."
I don't like the "other good cause" bit.
Stonehedge-
Presumably one could argue that the words 'other good cause' should be interpreted ejusdem generis, which would limit their scope considerably.
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The Special Counsel can only be terminated by Whitaker for "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause."
Whitaker has expressed the view that investigating Trump business finances is crossing a red line. So looking at a $300 million loan financed by Russian dirty money would be "other good cause". Is it possible that Whitaker can just say thank you, you have done a good job, now I am reassigning to anohter investigation, say into fake news and the Democrats.
Brommers
Charlie_L
I don't think Rod Rosenstein has been fired, yet. Trump has however transferred oversight of the Mueller's inquiry from Rosenstein to Whitaker. In John Kelly's words that role gives Whitaker "visibility into the special counsel's work".
Several Republican Senators have expressed the view that if Trump fired Mueller it would lead to an impeachment trail. In 1973 the trigger for Nixon's impeachment was that he ordered the Acting Attorney General to fire special investigator Cox. "Fire him or I will fire you like I just did to the others". Nixon resigned before the impeachment trial was completed.
What if Whitaker decides to sack Mueller by his own decision? He has already expressed the view that the investigation should be stopped. Would Trump be impeached for a bad act by his Acting Attorney General? Would Trump resign because an impeachment process had begun? It would just give him more ammunition to fire up his supporters. Trump only needs 1/3 of the Senate (35) to support him in order to survive impeachment. As we have seen, what doesn't beat him makes him stronger.