Nearly 250 former Justice Department officials have signed a letter posted on Medium, denouncing President Donald Trump’s months of attacks on the department and the investigation it is carrying out to determine whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election—and whether Trump’s campaign was involved in the interference—and called on Congress to protect the rule of law.
“We served this institution out of a commitment to the founding American principles that our democratic republic depends upon the rule of law, that the law must be applied equally, and that no one is above the law,” wrote the public servants, who included former U.S. attorneys, officials in the civil rights and environmental crimes divisions, and other employees.
Trump and his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, indicated this week that the president has the authority to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s running the investigation into his campaign and other activities.
Reports on Friday also suggested that Rod Rosenstein’s position as Deputy Attorney General may be in jeopardy, as the president has “voiced some frustrations” with him. Rosenstein’s firing, ethics experts agree, would amount to an obstruction of justice—and trigger a constitutional crisis—in the same way that the dismissal of Mueller would.
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