Ο Λευκός Οίκος επανέλαβε την Τρίτη ότι ο Πρόεδρος Donald Trump πιστεύει ότι έχει την εξουσία να πυροβολεί ειδικούς συμβούλους Robert Mueller καθώς η απογοήτευσή του για την έρευνα σχετικά με τις επαφές της εκστρατείας του με ρώσους αξιωματούχους γίνεται μια αυξανόμενη πηγή απογοήτευσης.
"Νομίζω ότι ο πρόεδρος είναι σαφές ότι αισθάνεται ότι η έρευνα έχει πάει πολύ μακριά", δήλωσε ο δημοσιογράφος Sarah Huckabee Sanders σε δημοσιογράφους στο Λευκό Οίκο, προσθέτοντας ότι ο Trump "σίγουρα πιστεύει ότι έχει τη δύναμη" να πυροβολήσει τον Mueller.
Τα σχόλια της Sanders έρχονται ως νομοθέτες στο Καπιτώλιο εξέφρασαν ανησυχία ότι το Trump , μετά την επιδρομή του FBI τη Δευτέρα στο γραφείο και την κατοικία του προσωπικού δικηγόρου του Michael Cohen , θα μπορούσε να απομακρύνει τον Mueller.
Τα εντάλματα έρευνας ζητήθηκαν και εκτελέστηκαν από πράκτορες του FBI και ομοσπονδιακούς εισαγγελείς στη Νέα Υόρκη σε συνεννόηση με την ομάδα του Mueller μετά από μια πρώτη παραπομπή από το γραφείο ειδικών συμβούλων.
Ερωτηθείς μετά την επιδρομή της Δευτέρας, αν είχε σκεφτεί να πυροβολήσει τον Mueller, ο Trump απάντησε ότι "πολλοί άνθρωποι" του είχαν πει ότι έπρεπε και δεν το απέκλεισε. "Νομίζω ότι είναι μια ντροπή τι συμβαίνει. Θα δούμε τι θα συμβεί", είπε, καλώντας την επιδρομή "επίθεση στη χώρα μας".
Εξέδωσε επίσης την οργή του σε απευθείας σύνδεση την Τρίτη, tweeting "Προνόμιο δικηγόρου-πελάτη είναι νεκρός!" και "ΟΛΟΚΛΗΡΩΜΕΝΟ ΑΓΑΠΗ !!!"
Sanders είπε στο παρελθόν ότι "ο πρόεδρος έχει το δικαίωμα ... αλλά καμία πρόθεση να" πυροβολήσει Mueller.
Από τεχνική άποψη, μόνο ο αναπληρωτής γενικός εισαγγελέας που διόρισε τον Mueller μπορεί να τον πυροβολήσει και μόνο για αιτία. Επί του παρόντος, το άτομο αυτό είναι ο Rod Rosenstein. Ωστόσο, το Trump μπορούσε να πυροβολήσει τον Ρόζενσταϊν, ή να διατάξει την κατάργηση των ειδικών κανονισμών των συμβουλών και να πυρπολήσει ο ίδιος ο Μούλερ.
Ένα άτομο με γνώση του θέματος δήλωσε στο NBC News ότι η Rosenstein ενέκρινε άμεσα την αίτηση για ένταλμα έρευνας για τον Cohen.
Welcome to the Mark Zuckerberg Congressional Testimony Live Blog Extravaganza from NBC News!
We’re here to keep track of what should be a long day of testimony while also providing you with some context, fact checking, and just a bit of levity.
THE BASICS: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before a joint session of two Senate committees: Judiciary and Commerce. That will mean a total of 44 senators, all of whom are allotted around five minutes each for questions and answers. That means we could be here allllllll day.
WHAT THEY'LL ASK: Likely about the company’s handling of user data, particularly as it pertains to the scandal surrounding how data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica was able to target ads based off the Facebook data of around 87 million users. It’s also likely that Zuckerberg will face questions over how the company missed that Russia-linked accounts were using Facebook to spread divisive political messages.
It’s a pivotal moment for Zuckerberg — who is facing Congress for the first time — and the U.S. government, both of which have been slow to respond to the issues posed by Facebook.
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WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders added a new level of uncertainty over the future of Robert Mueller when she seemed to suggest Tuesday that the president might have the power to fire the special counsel.
"I know a number of individuals in the legal community and including at the Department of Justice that he has the power to do so," she said, though it was not clear whether she might have meant that the president could direct the deputy attorney general to fire Mueller.
But does the president have the authority to do it himself?
There's no clear answer, and there is apparently no formal opinion from the Justice Department concluding that the president has that power.
Under the Justice Department regulations that set up the office of special counsel, Mueller can be fired only by Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel's investigation.
Normally, this power rests with the attorney general, but Jeff Sessions has recused himself, so it falls to Rosenstein. The regulations say a special counsel can be fired "for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies."
These regulations also say a special counsel "may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General" (in this case, the deputy attorney general).
That would seem to mean that only Rosenstein could fire Mueller.
But there's a potential constitutional issue — namely that a president, as chief executive, has the authority to fire anyone in the executive branch. This argument goes that such a constitutional power would override any statute or regulation.
And some legal scholars have suggested another scenario: Trump could argue that Mueller is interfering with foreign relations and that the president therefore had separate authority to fire him.
Legal experts, as they often do, disagree about what Trump could do, and the courts have never provided an answer to a situation like this.
Rosenstein has repeatedly said he has confidence in Mueller and sees no grounds for firing the special counsel. If Trump ordered Rosenstein to do it anyway and Rosenstein refused, Trump would clearly have authority to fire the deputy attorney general.
Under an executive order spelling out the order of succession at the Justice Department, authority over Mueller would then fall to the associate attorney general, who was Rachel Brand. No successor to her has yet been confirmed.
Authority would then go to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, though that position is currently held by an acting official, then to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert Higdon, and then the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Erin Nealy Cox.
Of course, any move to fire Mueller, either directly or indirectly, would have serious political consequences for the president.
Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, said, "Trump has all sorts of powers. That doesn't mean exercising them is wise or comports with the rule of law. If he fires Mueller or Rosenstein to protect himself, it is an impeachable offense and will trigger a constitutional crisis."
And firing the special counsel would not accomplish Trump's goal of putting an end to the Russia meddling investigation. The probe would simply revert to the FBI and the Justice Department, where prosecutors and federal agents would continue the kind of work they were doing before the special counsel was appointed.
It's a moment Mark Zuckerberg tried to avoid, but the Facebook CEO began taking questions on Tuesday from a firing squad of lawmakers keen to get answers about the company’s data privacy efforts.
The notoriously private Zuckerberg, 33, gave a brief opening statement before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees, expressing personal accountability for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and a desire to take a "broader view" of Facebook's responsibility to its users, a common sentiment throughout his apology tour over the past week.
"It was my mistake and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg told lawmakers.
Related
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said Zuckerberg and Facebook have a history of apologizing. He called the company out on "a pattern of lax data practices" and asked why Facebook didn't alert users when it first learned Cambridge Analytica may have used data harvested from Facebook users.
"When we heard back from Cambridge Analytica, that they had told us they weren't using the data and deleted it, we considered it a closed case," Zuckerberg said. "In retrospect, it was a mistake."
Zuckerberg is used to the glare of the spotlight, but only when it's something he can control, such as sharing positive Facebook news or talking about his philanthropy.
At times he stumbled or repeated familiar talking points. At other points, he seemed more in his element, talking about how artificial intelligence and the potential for it to help better weed out hate speech on Facebook in the future. The problem right now, Zuckerberg said, is training that AI to recognize nuances in every language on Facebook.
There have been questions about Zuckerberg's leadership, a topic that could come up during the hearings over Tuesday and Wednesday from lawmakers who may wonder if Facebook and its leader have become too powerful for their own good.
As the chairman and CEO of Facebook, Zuckerberg wields unparalleled influence over the company, including the majority of voting shares, making a coup nearly impossible. Zuckerberg is showing no signs of wanting to fire himself. He told NBC News last week he still believes he's the best person to run Facebook.
"The reality of this is when you're building something like Facebook, there are going to be things you mess up. I don't think anyone is going to be perfect, but I think everyone should learn from mistakes and continuing to be better,” he said.
Zuckerberg's testimony is his first time before the United States government and a long-time coming after 18 months of scandals, ranging from election meddling to user privacy. He's spent months wriggling his way out of invitations from Congress, instead sending the company's general counsel.
