Miles's law: where you stand depends upon where you sit. Translation: your opinion on certain matters depends on your institutional situation. I reference Miles's law a lot. It is highly relevant to questions like inter-branch conflict, which brings us to the fringe notion of the "unitary executive." Taken to the extreme, this theory claims that the president has complete, unilateral control over everything that happens within the executive branch, and can basically order anyone within the executive branch to do anything. When the president is a black dude with a "D" after his name, Republicans are terrified of "executive overreach." When the president is a Republican who regularly commits crimes, be they war crimes, obstruction of justice or possibly even treason, they become strict adherents to the most extreme version of "unitary executive" theory. Miles's law in action.
We have known for months that Trump's people were going to make the unitary executive argument, and say that Trump cannot be charged with obstruction of justice by going Nixon/Frost-Judge Dredd on us. The question was when and where they would push the argument most aggressively. The news is that they are making the argument to Mueller.
Except that they're not. Not really, anyway. They're making the argument to congressional Republicans. Remember that Robert Mueller doesn't matter. I'm sorry, but he doesn't. The question has never been "will Trump get away with it?" The question has always been, "what method will Trump use to get away with it?" The probability that Trump gets away with it is 1-epsilon. (The text editor in the blog doesn't like the Greek symbol for "epsilon" today, and as your math reminder, epsilon is the Greek character we use for a value arbitrarily close to but not equal to zero). I'll keep that epsilon there because I'm still a statistician at heart, but no. Trump gets away with everything.
Remember Trey Gowdy? That sleazy motherfucker who was obsessed with Benghazi conspiracy theories? He ran hearing after hearing in the House to try to find some dirt on Clinton. He found nothing because it was all bullshit, but that was never the point. The point was to keep saying BENGHAZI!!! Trump's batshit crazy lies have gotten too crazy for him. So, Mr. Benghazi is now a traitor to the party for his failure to embrace every batshit crazy lie Dear Leader tells. See this Roll Call write-up. Trey. Gowdy.
When you've gone too far for Trey Gowdy, your ass-hat is on too tight, and your sphincter is cutting off circulation to your brain. The FBI did not plant "spies" in Trump's campaign for...
Trump went too far into conspiracyland for Trey Gowdy.
That's not the important thing, though. The important thing is that Trey Gowdy is excommunicated from the GOP. Being a Republican in good standing now means wholeheartedly embracing every batshit crazy lie that Dear Leader tells. The sociology here is more important than anything else.
Remember, then, that Mueller won't indict Trump. You can't indict a sitting president. So says Mueller's team. Meaning what? Whatever he finds, he'll take to Congress. The same people who just excommunicated Trey Gowdy for not backing Trump's "spygate" bullshit.
Which is easier to defend: the unitary executive model, or "spygate?" Unitary executive. It's wacko, hypocritical, corrosive to the rule of law and Republicans would never accept anything even remotely close to it for a Democratic president, but it is at least rooted in the Constitution... kinda. "Spygate?" Too crazy for Trey Gowdy.
Donald Trump may be the most shameless, craven liar in history. He is a sociopath, and he will say or do anything for the sake of his own power. He does not have a single redeeming characteristic. His party will swallow anything he says, and regurgitate it verbatim.
If they'll excommunicate Gowdy over Trump's "spygate" lies, they'll push unitary executive as far as is necessary to declare Trump innocent of everything.
Remember, the Republican Party begins with the premise that Trump must be protected at all costs. They don't care what argument they have to make to do it, and they will repeat whatever Trump tells them to repeat. And there is basically zero chance of the Democrats getting enough seats to impeach and convict on their own in November's election.
Trump will get away with everything.
This is not a nation of laws. This is a nation of will-to-power.