As Mueller Demands Documents From Justice Department We Ask: Still Think This Is ‘Winding Down?’

Ok, so on Sunday evening we learned that Robert Mueller wants to know what the DoJ knows about the firing of James Comey.

And that makes sense precisely because James Comey’s firing made absolutely no sense. If you recall, Comey’s dismissal certainly appeared to be the product of coordination between Trump and Rod Rosenstein , with the latter penning a bizarre rationale that didn’t even come close to passing the smell test.

For all intents and purposes, Trump and the DoJ appeared to be asking the American public to believe that Comey was being fired because he was too hard on Hillary Clinton.

You’re reminded that the decision to fire Comey came down just hours after the FBI admitted that Comey had in fact grossly exaggerated the extent to which Clinton mishandled classified information.

Recall this from The New Yorker:

Are we seriously being asked to countenance the idea that Trump fired Comey because he didn’t treat Hillary Clinton fairly? The same Trump who seized upon Comey’s press conference last July and used it to buttress his claims that Clinton should be jailed. The same Trump who, on October 31st, said, “It took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had.”

Until the White House comes up with a less ludicrous rationalization for its actions, we can only assume that Trump fired Comey because the Russia investigation is closing in on him and his associates, and he knew that he didn’t have much sway over the F.B.I. director. That is the simplest theory that fits the facts. And it is a cause for great alarm.

And also this hilarious tweet:

https://twitter.com/BCAppelbaum/status/862372609463386112

America would later learn that just days before being fired, Comey had asked Rosenstein for what the New York Times described as “a significant increase in resources for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election.” Imagine that, right?

So James Comey, who was conducting an investigation into the Trump administration’s ties to Moscow, asked the deputy attorney general for more resources for said investigation, and the reason he had to ask Rosenstein in the first place was because Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself for lying about his own ties to Russia (under oath), and then days later, Rosenstein popped up with a recommendation to fire Comey and that recommendation was seconded by Sessions, who because of having recused himself, shouldn’t be involved at all.

Given all of that, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Mueller wants to know exactly what the fuck went on there. Here’s what ABC reported on Sunday:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating whether President Donald Trump sought to obstruct a federal inquiry into connections between his presidential campaign and Russian operatives has now directed the Justice Department to turn over a broad array of documents, ABC News has learned.

In particular, Mueller’s investigators are keen to obtain emails related to the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the earlier decision of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the entire matter, according to a source who has not seen the specific request but was told about it.

Issued within the past month, the directive marks the special counsel’s first records request to the Justice Department, and it means Mueller is now demanding documents from the department overseeing his investigation.

That last bit is particularly notable. Mueller is now going to compel the guy who appointed him to turn over documents and the irony here is that Mueller’s appointment was made necessary because that very same guy (Rosenstein) fired James Comey.

Don’t forget that this comes just six weeks after reports that Mueller had gotten ahold of a draft letter the President intended to send to Comey. Recall this from the Times’ piece on that:

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has obtained a letter that President Trump and a top political aide drafted in the days before Mr. Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, which explains the president’s rationale for why he planned to dismiss the director.

The May letter had been met with opposition from Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, who believed that some of its contents were problematic, according to interviews with a dozen administration officials and others briefed on the matter.

Mr. McGahn successfully blocked the president from sending Mr. Comey the letter, which Mr. Trump had composed with Stephen Miller, one of the president’s top political advisers.

A different letter, written by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and focused on Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, was ultimately sent to the F.B.I. director on the day he was fired.

In the article out Sunday evening, ABC goes on to say that Mueller is looking not only for correspondence between DoJ officials, but also for correspondence between the DoJ and the White House. That, after Mueller also reportedly asked former Justice Department officials for any information they had from their stint at the department.

“During a House hearing in June, Rosenstein refused to say whether he consulted with the White House ahead of Comey’s firing or whether anyone asked him to write his memo, insisting such questions ‘may well be within the scope of the special counsel’s investigation,'” ABC reminds you, in a rather ominously-worded passage.

All of this comes as Trump has ratcheted up pressure on Sessions and the DoJ in general to open investigations into Hillary Clinton. The President’s tweets to that effect were widely rebuked by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with  Sen. Dianne Feinstein going so far as to call the President’s social media diatribes indicative of “authoritarian” tendencies.

The gist of all this is that no one is safe from Mueller – not even the Justice Department that appointed him. Which is as it should be by the way.

This is surely maddening for the administration and has to be exceptionally disturbing for Jeff Sessions who has found himself back in the hot seat recently after e-mails obtained from Mueller’s cooperating witness George Papadopoulos certainly seemed to suggest that the Attorney Generally has perjured himself on multiple occasions this year.

Meanwhile, Mueller has already got Manafort and Gates on conspiracy, it looks like he’s going to indict Flynn on a laundry list of charges, and more than a few folks believe Jared Kushner is the cross hairs for money laundering.

So you know, draw your own conclusions about the extent to which this investigation is, as the White House contends, “winding down.” And look, maybe the focus on Trump himself is winding down. But it would be difficult to make the argument that this whole investigation is just going to be wrapped up and swept under the rug anytime soon.

Finally, for anyone in need of a refresher, here is the memo Rosenstein penned when he recommended dismissing Comey: