Trump loyalist Matt Schlapp is putting Special Counsel Robert Mueller on notice — his days are numbered.
Now that William Barr has been confirmed as the new U.S. attorney general, Schlapp predicts that it’s just a matter of time before Mueller goes.
Tomorrow will be the first day that President Trump will have a fully operational confirmed Attorney General. Let that sink in. Mueller will be gone soon.
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) February 14, 2019
So long, farewell
Schlapp is currently the chairman of the American Conservative Union, an influential conservative organization which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. He is married to Mercedes Schlapp, the White House director of strategic communications.
Barr was sworn in as attorney general on Thursday after the Senate voted along mostly partisan lines to confirm his appointment. He will lead a Justice Department that has been sharply criticized by Republicans for its handling of the Russia investigation and its oversight of the special counsel.
Trump has lacked a sympathetic leader at the top of the Justice Department since the special Counsel was first appointed. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe because of his role in the Trump campaign, placing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of overseeing the special counsel.
Bad apple
However, critics of the special counsel have questioned why Rosenstein did not recuse himself, as well. The deputy AG personally approved a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) warrant application to spy on a member of the Trump campaign in 2017.
That warrant was secured with political opposition research which included uncorroborated, highly salacious accusations against Trump and his associates. The intelligence was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and supplied by Russian government operatives, and Rosenstein failed to properly vet the evidence before taking it to FISC judges.
Despite his role in using what was very likely fraudulent political research to electronically eavesdrop on the Trump campaign, Rosenstein was placed in charge of overseeing the special counsel from its earliest stages. But if those actions weren’t disgraceful enough, on the same day that Barr was confirmed, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe revealed in a CBS interview that Rosenstein once volunteered to wear a recording device to take down the president.
Shortly after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, in the eight days before the special counsel was appointed, Rosenstein offered multiple times to wear a wire. His hope was that he could convince enough cabinet members based upon his recorded interactions with the president to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment.
“Rosenstein has been in charge of the Mueller probe. Yet, it is clear that he harbors an extreme bias against Trump,” wrote Fox News’s Gregg Jarrett. “How can anyone now view the investigation as fair, objective and neutral? It is not. It never has been.”
New blood
However, now that Barr — a former attorney general and a seasoned prosecutor — oversees the special counsel, Democrats worry that he will somehow undermine the investigation. Most of these fears are rooted in a 19-page memo Barr drafted in 2017 which argued that Mueller should not be allowed to investigate whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice.
According to Barr, the president wields unchecked authority to “start or stop a law enforcement proceeding,” and Trump was therefore acting within his legal limits when he fired Comey in 2017 for incompetence. Additionally, Democrats say they are concerned that Barr may not release a full version of the special counsel’s final Russia report after he refused to make that commitment during Senate confirmation hearings. However, based upon the rules governing the special counsel, Barr would be acting within his prescribed authority by limiting the release of Mueller’s report.
As a former attorney general, Barr couldn’t be more qualified to hold the position a second time. Therefore, if he sees fit to conclude the Mueller investigation or redact the special counsel’s final report, Americans should rest assured that he is doing so for just reasons.
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