I remember telling Chris when Mueller’s ties to Comey first came out that it would be better for everyone if Mueller was replaced early for not having recused himself because of the possibility of this very eventuality.
If there was a Board investigation going about you for firing Ned, I can tell you for sure that you would not have faith in the investigation if I were the investigator. If I stacked my team with Conservative posters, you would become nervous about getting railroaded. If you then saw multiple texts from Cole mentioning secret meeting that we had as a secret society, and later Ned wrote a tell all book about your wild exploits while at the same time, I was raiding your lawyer and other lib posters on tha board....you,wouldn’t trust my results.
Now aside from the fact that all of what I mentioned in my board analogy is actually going on without your knowledge, can’t you see a problem here? Really? I am not asking about what the legal letter of the law says, I am talking about the perception, since that is what will drive any consequence to this entire process.
This investigation did not have to be doomed from the start, but the IC had a specific outcome that they wanted, and that meant asking Mueller despite the ties to Comey. But, it never had to be that way for an honest investigation.