He Has Only Begun

Wishful thinking.

Politico noted "The purge of impeachment witnesses has begun" as it reported

Late Friday, news emerged that Trump had ordered the recall of Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union — "effective immediately," the ambassador noted in a statement. Hours earlier, the White House escorted out Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine policy officer on the National Security Counsel — along with his twin brother Yevgeny, who was not an impeachment witness.

It won't be only impeachment witnesses. Five days prior to the Politico story, investigative reporter Gabriel Sherman had written

With Senate Republicans on track to acquit Donald Trump on Wednesday, Washington is bracing for what an unshackled Trump does next. Republicans briefed on Trump’s thinking believe that the president is out for revenge against his adversaries. “It’s payback time,” a prominent Republican told me last week. “He has an enemies list that is growing by the day,” another source said. Names that came up in my conversations with Republicans included Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mitt Romney, and John Bolton. “Trump’s playbook is simple: go after people who crossed him during impeachment.”

Several sources said Bolton is at the top of the list. Trump’s relationship with Bolton was badly damaged by the time Bolton left the White House in September. Trump has since blamed his former national security adviser for leaking details of his forthcoming memoir that nearly derailed the impeachment trial by pressuring Republicans to call witnesses. In the book Bolton reportedly alleges Trump told him directly that Ukraine aid was tied to Ukraine announcing investigations into the Bidens (Bolton has denied being a source of the leak).

The campaign against Bolton has already begun. On January 23, the White House sent a cease and desist letter to Bolton’s lawyer demanding that Bolton’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, not release the book in March without removal of certain information. Trump intends to ratchet up the pressure, and some Republicans close to the White House fear how far Trump will take things after he’s gotten off for a second time (Trump famously made his July 25 call to Volodymyr Zelensky the day after Robert Mueller testified before Congress.) “Trump has been calling people and telling them to go after Bolton,” a source briefed on the private conversations said. The source added that Trump wants Bolton to be criminally investigated. A person familiar with Trump’s thinking said Trump believes Bolton might have mishandled classified information. According to a former official, the White House is planning to leak White House emails from Bolton that purportedly allege Bolton abused his position at the National Security Council. The official said that West Wing officials have discussed releasing emails “showing [Bolton] was doing pay-to-play,” the official said. A person close to Bolton dismissed the story. “John plays things straight,” the person said.

The White House declined to comment.

Now we learn that Trump has started to put his plan into action:

Firing an Inspector General for processing a whistleblower complaint would be an extraordinary blow to whatever shred of government integrity remains. It would be an atom bomb. https://t.co/muWxuoZq2E

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) February 8, 2020

Four days before the latest event, Sherman was ahead of the curve. Now a CNN legal analyst, who is likely to be proven prescient:

I'm sounding this bell now. It is disgraceful and criminal to demote / fire witnesses - as we are seeing with Vindman, his brother, Sondland.

But this could get even worse - including bogus criminal charges against perceived Trump enemies in FBI and elsewhere. Watch for this.

— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) February 8, 2020

This probably won't be immediate. It's more likely that the President, who needs to be re-elected to carry out his full autocratic agenda, soon will pull back before eventually resuming his purge.

But even Honig's tweet doesn't get at the full extent of the police state Trump is planning to impose. First, he's coming after the witnesses against him. Then it will be (perceived ) enemies in federal law enforcement.  Then, politicians and afterward, journalists, after which we won't know what happens.

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