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Clinton's campaign. The third episode detailed in the indictment began on June 7th, after reports that Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe would confirm statements made by James Comey about how the president had tried to intimidate him. In response, the President began a campaign of harassment, threats, and intimidation against McCabe. On March 16, 2018, after McCabe testified before Congress, the President, in retaliation, caused his dismissal and the loss of his pension. The Mueller team may have a high hurdle in convincing Rosenstein to approve the indictment. In its preparation for a possible indictment, the Mueller team argues that nothing in the Constitution or in a statute suggests a status with regard to criminal prosecution for the President different from any other federal office. Nor is there any statute or case law that finds that impeachment has to come before an indictment. But the Department of Justice's standing view precludes charging a sitting president with a crime. This is based on an opinion written by the Office of Legal Counsel in the Watergate era and recently expressed in hyperbolic terms by Giuliani: the President could kill James Comey if he wanted to without fear of prosecution. But, according to several former DOJ lawyers, Rosenstein in this circumstance may have the power to override the Office of Legal Counsel opinion. The Mueller team appears to believe that Rosenstein's pledge before congress that, absent malfeasance, he will support the Special Counsel's independence with regard to the Russian investigation, means he will let the indictment go forward. In one view—and in the suspicion of some in the White House—he may have already authorized Mueller to proceed with the indictment. The White House has made the argument—supported in many television appearances by Trump legal surrogate, Alan Dershowitz— that a president cannot be prosecuted for exercising his constitutional prerogatives, even if those actions foster a crime, that the President, as the ultimate federal office, and the nation's chief law enforcement officer, enjoys nearly unfettered latitude in how he carries out his duties. "I don't think you are going to find a court who will not see the president's role as unique," said one White House advisor. "The Mueller theories are wishful thinking." An indictment for obstruction of Justice is described in similar HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030261