Department of Justice

Is The Justice Department Being Prepared For A 'Saturday Night Massacre'?

Are they setting the stage for getting rid of Bob Mueller?

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Drawing parallels between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon is a bit of a cottage industry. Maybe it’s the personality-defining paranoia, the demands of loyalty, or liberals wishcasting Trump meets the same political fate, but the comparisons just seem to be there for the making. Now comes some evidence that a Nixon-style “Saturday Night Massacre” may be in the offing.

It starts with Dana Boente, the now former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who was forced to resign late last month. The circumstances surrounding Boente’s ouster are unclear, and some — including Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe — think this is a bad omen:

And it’s not just legal academia that is making the connection. Senator Chris Coons also sees a potential connection:

“I‘m concerned about the abrupt departure of Dana Boente after a career as a federal prosecutor … There’s a lot of circumstances that connect the ongoing Mueller investigation to the Eastern District,” Coons said in an interview.

Of course they are referencing the Nixon administration’s efforts to remove special prosecutor Archibald Cox which resulted in the resignations of Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, who refused to pull the trigger on firing Cox. As Law Newz reports, forcing out Boente could be the the start of eliminating Mueller:

Tribe is implying that Boente’s forced resignation should be investigated, because it could be part of a similar strategy of setting up a situation where he could go down the line until he finds a new Attorney General to fire Mueller.

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It’d be way more fun to watch the bumbling machinations of the Trump administration if the fate of our country wasn’t hanging in the balance.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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