Trump should learn from Nixon

President Donald Trump pushed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign last week. Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, who has expressed hostility to special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry, has stepped in as acting attorney general and, according to reports, to take over supervision of the investigation.

The president has the right to replace his cabinet officials. After all, it’s not unusual, as Trump said, to have some turnover after an election.

But the head of the executive branch does not have the right to attempt to end investigations of himself, his campaign and his administration. Those actions are called abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

For the moment, there’s no sign that Trump is attempting either a rapid or a slow-motion re-enactment of the so-called Saturday Night Massacre of 1973, when Richard Nixon ordered the firing of a special prosecutor, which contributed to the events that ultimately led to the president’s downfall. Nor do we know how the American people in general or Republicans in Congress in particular would react to such a move by Trump. Several Republican senators have warned him not to try; on the other hand, they have refrained from taking pre-emptive actions to make it impossible.

The appropriate action at this point would be for both Trump and the acting attorney general to make clear statements that the investigation will continue without interference.

It would also be appropriate for Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and other Senate Republicans to publicly declare their respect for the office of the special counsel. They should indicate that they will require any new nominee for attorney general to make the same no-interference pledge that the committee demanded of Elliot Richardson when he was nominated for the job in 1973.

Whether Senate Republicans fulfill that responsibility or not, Nixon’s example should make it clear to Trump that any actions he takes to subvert the investigation are likely to backfire.

In 1973, Nixon attempted to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and eventually found someone to do so after the attorney general and the deputy attorney general resigned in protest. The reaction was so virulent that Nixon was forced to back down. A new special prosecutor was appointed, and Nixon complied with subpoenas that had been the immediate cause of the conflict. Not only that, the Saturday Night Massacre marked the first time in the Watergate scandal that impeachment was thought to be a real possibility.

We cannot know whether public opinion in 2018 would echo what happened in 1973. But we do know that Trump got into this mess in large part because he fired James Comey, the FBI director, presumably to end the investigation into the 2016 election. That episode brought about Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.

We also don’t know what Mueller’s investigation has found. There’s speculation about additional indictments and a report that could harm Trump. It is far from clear that trying to force out Mueller would stop any of that. But it will force people to take sides, and Trump should not count on even previously loyal Republicans to follow him into blatant disregard of the rule of law. Many of them didn’t endorse his firing of Comey. They probably wouldn’t support him now. Just as with Nixon, even if Trump might be guilty he could still make his situation a lot worse.

If he cares at all about his presidency, Trump should not go down Nixon’s path.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.