One Tuesday, Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX) was on MSNBC where he talked about the recent reports that special prosecutor Robert Mueller had obtained a copy of a revealing letter. That letter was reported to be the original draft written by President Trump with justification for firing the then-FBI director James Comey. In his brief interview, Rep. Castro said that if they found that Trump dismissed the lead agent because of his Russia investigation against the President, then he was ready to begin the process of impeachment. Here is that clip.

Firing bureau director

When former FBI director James Comey was fired back in May, the Trump administration gave multiple reasons for their decision. Among them was that the order to fire Comey came from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and more directly, from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. In the two letters that were used to fire the director -- made public on the same day, Trump referred to three occasions that he was told by Comey that he was not under investigation.

President Trump also referred to the Justice Department's recommendation on dismissing the FBI director. In a second letter by Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general gave a particularly strange reason, saying that the head of the FBI was fired for "mishandling" the investigation on Hillary Clinton last year.

It was understood at this point that the firing was a recommendation from both Rosenstein and attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Blaming Comey for Clinton investigation

In 2016, Comey was leading the FBI's investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails that were stored on a private server. He publicly concluded on July 5, 2016, that there was no diabolical intent on Clinton's part to hide emails.

Secretary Clinton raised a lot of controversy among her conservative opposition over reports of a private email server she had set up at her home, which Republicans saw as a breach of national security. The suggestion that this was the reason for the firing almost a year later, was seen by many as curious.

White House contradictions on firing

The day following his firing, May 10, the then-deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a press conference that the DOJ, Congress, the White House and FBI had lost confidence in the director. Then on the following day, President Trump said during an NBC News interview that the Russia investigation had been on his mind when he fired Comey on May 9. He also said that he was already thinking about firing the director. Immediately after this, It was reported that White House staff were scrambling around and trying to get their stories straight.

Trump publicly contradicts explanations from aides

Last week it was reported, however, that the special prosecutor who was named after the head of the bureau was fired and is now leading the investigation on Trump, obtained the first draft of the original letter that was written by both President Trump and White House aide Stephen Miller.

According to The Washington Post, Mueller obtained the letter in recent weeks. It's reported that the draft seems to prove Trump's real intentions for the firing.

The article states that the administration "made pains" to deny that Trump dismissed him because of the Russia investigation. After the firing, the President -- by himself -- defied all of those reasons and said that the DOJ's recommendations to fire the FBI director didn't really matter. In the end, it was his decision. The New York Times originally reported on the draft in an article titled: "Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey".

Revealing first draft, in Mueller's possession

In the Washington Post article titled: "Bob Mueller has an unreleased Trump letter about firing James B.

Comey. Here’s why that’s big", it explained how the President could have possibly obstructed justice by examining the things Trump didn't say. For instance, when President Trump attempted to establish plausible deniability in his NBC News interview by saying that the investigation was on his mind when he fired Comey. He is, in this case, not directly admitting that he did so because of the investigation.

But the President also didn't say that the DOJ had tried to deceive or cover up the reason for the firing, which is now exposed as what they actually did in the newly obtained letter. Now, the attempt to establish a case for Obstruction Of Justice falls on examining the character of the letter's two authors, Stephen Miller and President Trump.

Careless authors, congressional action

The Post article points out that White House counsel Donald McGahn -- who reportedly reviewed the original draft when it was complete, considered the tone of the letter as "problematic". Judging from what we now know of the President's temperament, one could only imagine how incendiary and revealing it is. The article also points out, however, that due to Miller himself being a bit of a "bomb-thrower" (my word, not the words of the Post) that there's no reason to believe that either author was careful in wording their letter.

It should also be noted that the Post did not receive a copy of the letter and were only provided details of its contents, said to be multiple pages.

That would mean that there could be plenty of evidence on those pages to make a case for obstruction of justice. A ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Cali) said on CNN earlier this week that it was far time they subpoenaed the White House for all relevant documents, including the draft letter.
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