Between Trump's escalating war of words with Comey, his decision to pardon Scooter Libby, the raid on Cohen's office and increasing speculation that Rosenstein ought to... make preparations, it is pretty tempting to think that Mueller's days are numbered. Fire Rosenstein, replace him with a Trumpist, have that Trumpist fire Mueller and replace him with another Trumpist, bury everything, pardon Flynn, Manafort, Cohen and anyone else even remotely at risk, and be done with it. Why not just pull the trigger? Given the increasing legal danger, it seems to be the way things are going anyway.
The primary objections to this strategy are either that it will provoke outrage, or result in leaks.
Regarding outrage, from Trump's perspective... so what? When has the prospect of provoking outrage ever stopped him from doing anything? In this case, I think he'd be right. There would be protests, and feckless objections from the Democratic minorities in the House and Senate, but there really wouldn't be any legal recourse. The only legal response would be impeachment, and if he pardons himself, it's not even clear that is appropriate.
Leaks? Seize every document in Mueller's hands during the Saturday Night Massacre, and declare them national security secrets. Bullshit? Yes, but it makes everything hearsay, unless Mueller's people smuggle stuff out. It depends on how he runs that operation. His people have been tight-lipped. The flip-side of that is that documents are probably easy to control once you pull a Saturday Night Massacre.
For a normal president, I can see the arguments holding weight. For Trump? Why hasn't he done it?
As I keep writing, over, and over, and over again, he will never be impeached. He will never face any charges. Why? His party is absolutely, 100% committed to protecting him because once they acknowledge the level of criminality in his campaign and administration, the party faces 1974/1976-type consequences. None of them are willing to face that. Thus, they declare all accusations to be false, and nothing but partisan smears, turning everything into a haze of partisan bickering, insulating Trump, and the Republican Party to the degree possible, from the consequences of Trump's criminality.
Trump has almost certainly received direct assurances from congressional Republicans that they will never let him be impeached. If they will never let him be impeached, then what does he have to lose?
Embarrassment. However, even that can be mitigated by the Devin Nunes effect. No matter what Mueller says or finds, congressional Republicans will pull something like "the Nunes memo." Was that thing total bullshit? Yes, hence my references to Nunes as a stoner-philosopher who challenged our conceptions of knowledge itself.
Suppose the golden shower tape is real. Suppose Mueller gets the tape. Suppose Mueller gets a tape of Trump committing treason by promising the Russians something in exchange for keeping the golden shower tape secret, and then finds documents of Trump actually doing what he promised the Russians.
How many congressional Republicans would turn on Trump?
The correct answer is zero. The tape is fake. The documents are fake. Conspiracy. Deep state. Mueller is a Russian spy, trying to destabilize the government, and Hillary is behind it and lock her up and pizzagate and chemtrails and the missing emails would prove it's all true and that's what the Benghazi attack was all about and Vince Foster saw it all coming!
How do you think Fox News would cover it? Sinclair Broadcasting? Talk radio is still a thing, you know.
Devin Nunes goes to work putting together another "memo," that document becomes gospel truth to the GOP. Sarah Huckabee Sanders goes on camera, lies her ass off to a bunch of White House press core journalists who pretend that there is a point to asking her questions...
Of course, if this happens before 2020, Trump loses. He doesn't get impeached, but he does lose. Unless there are more HILLARY EMAILS!!!!
[facepalm]
The longer the Mueller investigation goes on, the more danger Trump faces. The risks are simply mitigated, and I am exaggerating here because, c'mon. The Russians aren't handing the golden shower tape to Mueller unless Trump really steps out of line with Putin.
Realistically, what might Mueller have found? A lot of contacts between the Trumpists and the Russians. Like, oh, say, Michael Cohen in addition to everyone else. Anything short of the golden shower tape itself, and the GOP will set Nunes to work on it, everything fades into a partisan haze, the GOP remains solidly behind Trump, and he gets away with it.
So, why bother firing Mueller?
Yes, Trump will get away with it. Everything. All of it.