Former GOP Leader Bill Frist Calls On Republican Senate To Protect Mueller

Fletch said:

Trump understands something that neither you, nor Frist do: Impeachment is a political process. Any findings by Mueller will be fought out in the House and the Senate, not the court system. Go review the Clinton strategy against Ken Starr before you go any further in your outrage over attacking a special prosecutor.

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It's easy to dismiss Fletch out of hand because of how wrong he usually is, but he's got the right of it this time. Short of indictment (and the odds are squarely stacked against that happening), the result of Mueller's investigation will be a report that comes down to Congress to do anything about (i.e. nothing). The reason trump and his allies are publicly attacking the Special Counsel investigation is so that the public (whom Congress is accountable to) remains as split on Mueller's conclusion as it is on trump himself.

Cardinal said:

It's easy to dismiss Fletch out of hand because of how wrong he usually is, but he's got the right of it this time. Short of indictment (and the odds are squarely stacked against that happening), the result of Mueller's investigation will be a report that comes down to Congress to do anything about (i.e. nothing). The reason trump and his allies are publicly attacking the Special Counsel investigation is so that the public (whom Congress is accountable to) remains as split on Mueller's conclusion as it is on trump himself.

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Awww, thanks Cardinal. I was wrong about you. You can be reasonable after all.

Beaudreaux said:

I don't disagree, but Rosenstein has done enough that his firing can be justified on normal grounds.

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By the way, firing Rosenstein is no longer necessary if trump wants to protect himself. By being able to select a screened Justice of his own choosing, he'll be able to pardon himself if he wants. Such an action would of course make it up to Scotus, and a 5-4 decision in his favor would allow such a pardon. In addition to this, the other theoretical action, indictment by Mueller, would meet an identical fate. Even if Democrats retook the House and drafted articles of impeachment, thereby freezing trump's pardoning powers, trump could exercise his power of the pardon well before the next House was sworn in in January.

Finally, trump and Giuliani have managed to split approval of Mueller right down to current trump approval ratings, which means that Mueller's investigation has been effectively neutered.

Trump doesn't need to fire anybody in the DOJ anymore.

Cardinal said:

By the way, firing Rosenstein is no longer necessary if trump wants to protect himself. By being able to select a screened Justice of his own choosing, he'll be able to pardon himself if he wants. Such an action would of course make it up to Scotus, and a 5-4 decision in his favor would allow such a pardon. In addition to this, the other theoretical action, indictment by Mueller, would meet an identical fate. Even if Democrats retook the House and drafted articles of impeachment, thereby freezing trump's pardoning powers, trump could exercise his power of the pardon well before the next House was sworn in in January.

Finally, trump and Giuliani have managed to split approval of Mueller right down to current trump approval ratings, which means that Mueller's investigation has been effectively neutered.

Trump doesn't need to fire anybody in the DOJ anymore.

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Although there is no Constitutional restriction preventing a President from issuing a pardon for himself, I don't think it's necessary, as Ford showed us with Nixon - Pence could pardon Trump, if he Trump doesn't pardon himself, so there's no need to fire Rosenstein or anyone else concerning that matter. Anyway, Rosenstein made enough mistakes to justify firing him for cause. However, the Constitution specifically restricts a POTUS from being able to issue pardons for impeachments offenses, which follows that Trump can be removed from office and the impeachment would stick. If there turns out to be evidence that Trump actually colluded with Russia to effect the 2016 election, I don't think Pence would pardon Trump, unless he thought that doing so would calm the populous by bring about healing of the country more rapidly, as Ford stated was the reason for issuing the pardon for Nixon.

Anything beyond that, is just more speculation not based on facts in evidence at this time

EDIT: for the record, since it seemed you may have thought that I was somehow saying that I thought Trump should fire anyone, I'm not condoning or suggesting that. Although I wouldn't have a problem if Rosenstein lost his job, I think that Trump firing him before the Mueller report is published would be a seriously bad political move on Trump's part.