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TheBefore becoming president, Donald Trump called for the imprisonment of his opponents. With the help of Attorney General William Barr, he may be training all federal law enforcement forces against his enemies, real or imagined. Unlike Richard Nixon, who acted secretly, Trump corrupts the justice system openly and publicly.
The gravity of such abuse of presidential power and its potential to undermine the constitutional order could well surpass all the crimes described in the Mueller report. Indeed, Congress has long recognized that such misconduct could be punished.
Trump's desire to investigate the investigators who discovered the Russian conspiracy to elect him has taken a special urgency since the publication of the Mueller report, with Trump repeatedly accusing government officials of "treason" and the House Blanche declaring: "All of this was an attempt at withdrawal to the President of the United States. "
On Thursday night, after spending whole days denigrating specifically "treacherous" investigators, Trump announced that he had granted Barr "full and complete authority" to declassify the documents pertaining to him. survey conducted in Russia. The White House also said Trump had ordered intelligence agencies to cooperate "promptly and fully" with the investigation conducted as part of the investigation.
This is reminiscent of Nixon's secret ploy of "using available federal mechanisms to screw up our political enemies," as White House lawyer John Dean said at the time. "The availability of grants, federal contracts, lawsuits, etc." IRS provides potentially damaging information against some of its enemies. Although the agency's commissioner rejected Nixon's request, this scheme was incorporated into Nixon's indictment case, which accused him of illegally seeking to "obtain [information] of the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens. "
Although most of Nixon's projects have been warned, Trump seems ready to do his. Mr. Barr recently appointed US Attorney John Durham (known for his investigations of corrupt relations between the FBI and Boston executioner, James "Whitey" Bulger), to lead an investigation into "origins" of the investigation on Russia. Unnamed government officials attempted to downplay the importance of the investigation by stating to the press that it did not currently involve the use of subpoenas before the grand jury. but that of course could change at any time. Indeed, Senator Lindsey Graham demands it publicly. .
Barr, meanwhile, has become remarkably open about his intention to follow the president's initiative by making investigators the center of all possible opprobrium. In his testimony in the Senate several weeks ago, Barr denied that he agreed with the president 's accusation that there was "improper oversight" of the Trump campaign. More recently, however, he answered a question from a Fox News interviewer if he "felt[ed] a rat "at the FBI stating," The answers I receive are not sufficient, "and suggested that FBI headquarters officials were guilty, referring to James Comey and other former FBI officials that Trump had repeated excoriated.
"Barr even asserted that the evidence against Clinton was stronger than any potential evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president."
Hillary Clinton was the initial target of Trump. Trump implored Jeff Sessions (with some success) to reopen an investigation into unsubstantiated claims that she had unduly interfered in the sale of Uranium One to a Russian corporation acting as Secretary of State. In November 2017, the New York timehis called ten former attorneys general, but only one answered the question of whether the sessions were to meet the strong demands of Trump: that is Barr, who stated that he saw no problem in that the president prepares the views of the Ministry of Justice on a political enemy, as long as it was "warrant[ed]. Barr even asserted that the evidence against Clinton was stronger than any potential evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the President, despite the fact that the main "evidence" of the Uranium One accusations came from book sponsored by Steve Bannon.
Barr seemed indifferent to the risk posed by a president who used the Department of Justice as a means of revenge against a former election opponent. Indeed, Barr said the department would "give up its responsibility" if it did not pursue Clinton as Trump wanted. In a memorandum that he later wrote to DOJ officials overseeing Mueller and that he shared with Trump's defense team, before becoming Attorney General, Barr stated that he There was "no limit" on the power of the president to direct police investigations, including those that he is personally interested in.
In fact, Trump's efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the completed investigation in Russia are integral to Trump's earlier efforts to limit and even close the ongoing investigation, a conduct that the Mueller report identified as a possible hindrance to justice. that Trump (with the support of Barr) claimed to be only a "riposte".
Barr suggested to Time that there is simply no problem in that a president chooses personally who should or should not be the subject of criminal investigations, as long as the facts " justify an investigation. But this completely misses the point.
As the nation recognizes in the Watergate era, if the president uses the federal government apparatus to distinguish and punish his political or personal enemies by placing them at the center of law enforcement investigations, the perception (and reality) of the equity on which our justice system depends will be seriously endangered.
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