Now playing at the White House Repertory Company: an all-white, all-grifting interpretation of The Emperor Jones. From Politico:



White House counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his post this fall, the president announced on Twitter, marking the latest shakeup of the president's legal team as he continues to battle special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.



...



McGahn generated headlines earlier this month after it was revealed that he had spoken with Mueller's investigators for more than 30 hours over the past nine months. Trump's allies have said that McGahn did not offer anything damaging to the president, but McGahn still could help fill in some blanks as Mueller probes whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russians before the election and whether Trump obstructed justice.

I hold no brief for McGahn. He walked in there with his eyes and reputation open and, anyway, he's just another Republican lawyer. (His tenure at the Federal Election Commission was marked only by his apparent determination to keep the FEC from doing its job, which is a common characteristic of most Republican lawyers hired in for public service.) There will be another Republican lawyer, probably with a similar CV, who steps in there. (There's always a sucker for the limelight of a Washington crisis.) Pretty soon, that lawyer's going to have to talk to Mueller, too. There is no way to be this president*'s lawyer without flirting with an obstruction of justice at this point. He needs a mob lawyer and the ones that I know are too smart to take on a client like this.

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White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018

McGahn talked to Mueller. He talked to Mueller a lot. He's leaving the job because he talked to Mueller and because the president can't swing a cat around the Oval Office without hitting a lawyer who talked to Mueller at this point, and he's hearing the beating of the drums getting closer and closer every day.

White House counsel Don McGahn is out. Chip Somodevilla Getty Images

Jones lies with his face to the ground, his arms outstretched, whimpering with fear as the throb of the tom-tom fills the silence about him with a somber pulsation, a baffled but revengeful power.

-- The Emperor Jones, Eugene O'Neill, Stage Direction, Scene VII

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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