Mr. Trump may call this behavior “fighting back,” but the federal criminal code would almost surely call it obstructing justice — an offense that has led to the resignation of one president and the impeachment of another.
.. Other defenders of the president have argued it was no big deal. Hey, this happened seven months ago, and he didn’t even follow through!.. But he did follow through with firing Mr. Comey. If there were any remaining doubt that he did so for an innocent reason, Thursday’s news snuffed it out. Mr. Trump’s claim that he wanted Mr. Mueller gone because of his supposed “conflicts of interest,” which included a claimed dispute long ago over fees at one of Mr. Trump’s golf clubs, is not worth taking seriously... Second, why the repeated lies by Mr. Trump and his associates about the contacts with Russian officials? Maybe they truly believed they did nothing illegal during the campaign and transition, but thought it would be embarrassing for the contacts to become public in light of the intelligence community’s finding that Russia attempted to interfere in the election. For this White House, though, mere public embarrassment has never seemed a source of chagrin.