We begin today’s roundup with Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times and her analysis of Donald Trump’s “high-tech dirty tricksters”:
Cambridge Analytica, the shadowy data firm that helped elect Donald Trump, specializes in “psychographic” profiling, which it sells as a sophisticated way to digitally manipulate huge numbers of people on behalf of its clients. But apparently, when you’re trying to win a campaign, prostitutes, bribes and spies work pretty well too. [...] Cambridge Analytica shared office space with Trump’s San Antonio-based digital operation, and took substantial credit for its success. “We are thrilled that our revolutionary approach to data-driven communications played such an integral part in President-elect Donald Trump’s extraordinary win,” Nix said in a Nov. 9, 2016, news release.
Jay Willis at GQ dives into some scenarios if Trump decides to fire Mueller:
What if Trump doesn't want to bother with "legal obligations"? What if he just orders Rosenstein to do it?
A fair question, given the president's previously-professed views on the ability of the justice system to limit what he can do. As argued by former solicitor general Seth Waxman, if Mueller is terminated without any explanation, he (or his subordinates) might try suing under the Administrative Procedures Act, which allows courts to prevent agencies (like DOJ) from taking action (like removing the special counsel) that is, among other things, "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." Since the law delineates the circumstances in which Mueller can be removed, Waxman argues, it affords a remedy in the event that those rules are broken, too.