Goodbye, Mr. Rosenstein.

Goodbye, Mr. Mueller.

Here's your replacement.

The man who may be asked to fire Robert Mueller has argued the president has broad firing powers

Solicitor General Noel Francisco is next in line if Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Francisco, a prominent Republican lawyer, has some impressive conservative credentials. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and worked in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration.

He’s also defended a broad interpretation of executive power — and he’s currently arguing a case before the Supreme Court that defends the president’s expansive power to fire executive branch officials. That case is unrelated to the Mueller probe. But Francisco’s argument, and his legal interpretations, offers some insight to the man who might be asked to fire Mueller.

Francisco points to two provisions of the Constitution as giving the president very broad authority. One says the president shall appoint ambassadors, judges and “all other officers of United States.” The other says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

”The president’s constitutional responsibility to faithfully execute the laws requires adequate authority to remove subordinate officers,” Francisco told the court in February. “The framers understood the close connection between the president’s ability to discharge his responsibilities as head of the executive branch and his control over its personnel. … The president’s ability to execute the law is thus inextricably linked to his authority to hold his subordinates accountable for their conduct.”

Francisco is basically saying the Constitution gives the president the ability to dismiss all officials who have power under the executive branch. That could, most conspicuously, give Trump a legal way to oust Mueller.

The Supreme Court will likely judge the case very narrowly on the question raised about the status of SEC administrative law judges. But it’s telling that the administration is taking this stance and that Francisco, as the solicitor general, is making these arguments before the Court.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/17/17222476/mueller-investigation-noel-francisco-rosenstein-trump