Trump lost his marbles on Friday, letting loose on his senior staff over Jeff Sessions recusing himself from any and all Department of Justice investigations into Russia. It s kind of strange   the investigations should go forward properly regardless of who s in charge. Or would they? Trump may not have thought so until Sessions recused himself and put Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, an Obama appointee, in charge of those investigations.Boente gives the Senate Judiciary Committee powerful leverage to demand a special prosecutor now, because Trump s nominee for Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, will have his confirmation hearings this month. The Judiciary Committee could press him to commit to appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Trump and Russia before voting to send his confirmation to the full Senate.If they manage to do that, Russia will probably blow up. If they don t manage to do that, it s possible that the Judiciary Committee won t vote to send Rosenstein to the full Senate, which leaves Boente in charge. The kicker is that Boente, as an Obama appointee, is less likely to fall under Trump s influence.There s historical precedence for the Judiciary Committee to demand such a commitment from a nominee of a corrupt president, too. In 1973, during the unfolding Watergate scandal, Nixon nominated his former Secretary of Defense, Elliot Richardson, for Attorney General. The Judiciary Committee not only demanded Richardson commit to a special prosecutor for Watergate, they demanded he name the person he d appoint before they would vote on his confirmation.Richardson did, and both he and his pick, Archibald Cox, were grilled on just how independent Cox would be in pursuing Watergate.Richardson was confirmed, Cox was appointed, and then Nixon began pressuring Richardson to fire Cox because Cox was getting too close to the truth.What happened with Nixon, Richardson, Cox, and the entire Watergate scandal, are why we need a special prosecutor with broad independent authority now. Trump has accused Obama of illegally wiretapping him, yet apparently, the FBI was able to get a FISA warrant for such tapping back in October. That means there are recordings that are not illegal. Those recordings probably contain damning evidence and need to be investigated, if not outright released.Trump s ire suggests that he s terrified of what those recordings, along with other mounting evidence, will reveal. The more damning those recordings, the more he ll play the victim and act like everything would be just fine if Obama s FBI had just left him and his campaign alone.Maybe Trump thought Sessions would prevent all of this. After all, Sessions lied to the Senate about his own contact with Russia while working on Trump s campaign as a top foreign policy adviser. Or maybe he just thought Sessions would resist calls to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the growing Russia scandal and do it himself, under direction from Trump himself.Trump projects endlessly. Every accusation he levels is something of which he, himself, is either guilty or afraid. In this case, it s likely fear. Besides Sessions, disgraced National Security Adviser, General Michael Flynn, lied about contact with Russia. Trump s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was present for some of that. Two of Trump s other campaign advisers, Carter Page and J.D. Gordon, likewise had contact with Russia. Paul Manafort, who had a brief stint as Trump s campaign manager, has business dealings with pro-Russia leaders in Ukraine.And yet, the Trump administration has vehemently denied any contacts with Russia at all during the campaign, while also saying that contact was brief, fleeting, informal, and innocuous. If so, then why lie like this? Trump s frightened as hell right now. A DOJ under an Obama appointee could easily be his undoing, and he knows it.Featured image by Win McNamee via Getty Images