CONGRESS/DEMS/GOP/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For months, the political world has treated Robert S. Mueller III as the arbiter of President Trump’s fate: Hopeful Democrats have theorized about the damage Mr. Mueller’s investigation might inflict. Suspicious Republicans, led by Mr. Trump, have cast him as leading a ‘witch hunt.’ But this week Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, offered a bracing reminder that Mr. Mueller is unlikely, in the end, to render a decisive judgment on the president. Mr. Giuliani, citing conversations with the special counsel’s team, said Mr. Mueller intended to follow Justice Department rules that make presidents immune to indictment while in office. For decades, politically appointed lawyers in the executive branch have argued that the stigma and distraction of being indicted would interfere with the president’s ability to carry out his constitutional powers. And from Watergate to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, special counsels have adhered to that standard, leaving it to Congress — and the voters — to punish presidents or forgive them for alleged wrongdoing…The prospect is unsettling to both parties — unnerving Democratic leaders who have strained to mute impeachment demands from the left and Republicans who worry that new disclosures about Mr. Trump could destabilize his presidency.”
-Alexander Burns and Charlie Savage, “Congressional Candidates, Not Mueller, Could Decide Trump’s Future,” The New York Times online, May 18, 2018