This is the broader strategy behind the multi-pronged moves over the weekend to sack FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe shortly before the US President’s personal lawyer called for the Mueller investigation to be shut down.
In both cases the message to Trump’s voter base is the same: The FBI conducted a politically biased probe into the Trump-Russia links and therefore Mueller’s findings will be similarly tainted.
The decision by Attorney-General Jeff Sessions to sack McCabe less than 24 hours before his resignation took effect — denying him much of his pension benefits — was a calculated new assault on the FBI’s reputation.
Trump is increasingly irritated by the lengths to which Mueller is going to uncover links between his administration and Russia, with the revelation last week that the special counsel is trawling through the documents of the Trump Organisation.
“A great day for democracy,” Trump tweeted after the sacking. “Sanctimonious (former FBI chief) James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI.”
It is difficult to judge the degree of McCabe’s alleged culpability in the absence of the release of the inspector general’s report.
He allegedly authorised the release of information to the media and was not forthcoming when questioned on his role in the handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
What is known, however, is that Trump dislikes and distrusts McCabe because his wife ran as a Democrat in Virginia and the then FBI deputy was forthright in defending his former boss Comey after the President sacked him.
Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, has used McCabe’s sacking to sharpen the White House attack on Mueller, saying these events proved the probe was fatally flawed early on and was “corrupted” by political bias.
But the McCabe issue proves none of this.
The FBI has made mistakes along the way in its Russia probe — such as the exchange of politically biased text messages between two agents.
But Mueller removed that agent from his team and there is no public evidence yet to suggest that McCabe’s actions mean Mueller’s findings will be tainted by impartiality or otherwise “corrupted”.
The smoke from the weekend’s twin Trump assaults against Mueller indicate nothing but more smoke. There is no evidence of fire as yet, but that is not the point. This is a tactical assault from the Trump administration to work up to its larger argument that the Mueller team is akin to an arm of the Democratic Party. How the facts align with that claim may be secondary to the impression it spreads. If the impression of a tainted investigation gets enough traction Trump may ultimately do what he has always wanted — sack Mueller.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia.
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Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to sack special counsel Robert Mueller or discredit his findings so they do not destroy his presidency.