Rebecca R. Ruiz and Mark Landler report in NYT:
The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump’s four-month-old presidency.
The decision by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, came after a cascade of damaging developments for Mr. Trump in recent days, including his abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the subsequent disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn….
By appointing Mr. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor with an unblemished reputation, Mr. Rosenstein could alleviate uncertainty about the government’s ability to investigate the questions surrounding the Trump campaign and the Russians.
117 days into Trump’s presidency, a special counsel has been named to investigate ties between his campaign and Russia. Robert Mueller enjoys strong bipartisan support, so if Trump were to fire him, which he could do, it would be suicidal.
An independent commission is still needed, because a special counsel is focused on criminal acts, while the questions swirling around Trump include serious political ones and not just criminal ones. In any case, stay tuned and stay woke.