Monday, October 10, 2016

Former Senior US Prosecutors, Republicans, Slam Trump

Add to the growing ranks of prominent Republicans turning on Donald Trump, a number of senior prosecutors and Justice Department figures. From Politico:

...former Republican appointees to senior Justice Department posts used words like “abhorrent,” “absurd” and “terrifying” to describe Trump’s threat to use the legal system to imprison Clinton.

“For Donald Trump to say he will have a special prosecutor appointed and to have tried and convicted her already and say she’d go to jail is wholly inappropriate and the kind of talk more befitting a Third World country than it is our democracy,” said Paul Charlton, who spent a decade as a federal prosecutor before serving as U.S. attorney for Arizona under President George W. Bush.

Added Charlton: “The Department of Justice isn’t a political tool and it ought not to be employed that way.”

Another GOP lawyer, Marc Jimenez, who served on the legal team backing Bush in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court showdown and later as a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney in Miami, said he was deeply disturbed by Trump’s remarks.

“This statement demonstrates the clear and present danger that Trump presents to our justice system. For a president to ‘instruct’ an attorney general to commence any prosecution or take any particular action is abhorrent,” Jimenez said. “If it occurred, it would be a politically motivated decision that would cheapen the Department of Justice and contradict the core principle that prosecutors should never consider political factors in their charging or other decisions.”

The worst of Richard Nixon haunts Trump.

While presidents appoint the attorney general, they do not make decisions on whom to prosecute for crimes — and were Trump to do so, prosecutors warned, he would spark a constitutional crisis similar to that of the “Saturday Night Massacre” in the Nixon administration. In that case, Nixon attempted to fire the prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, and the top two Justice Department officials resigned on the spot.

 

5 comments:

Ben Burd said...

These mucky mucks don't count - the Trumpers can't get enough of this stuff!

Anonymous said...

This is the equivalent of calling Stephen Harper a fascist dictator for ordering the Oliphant Commission looking into Mulroney's bribe taking.

Hillary set up a private email server in her basement for the explicit function of destroying evidence that would otherwise get subpoenaed. (She even smashed old smartphones with a hammer to destroy evidence.)

In fact, she data-bleached 33,000 emails AFTER an FBI subpoena (an equivalent act put Conrad Black in prison.) She lied to the FBI during the investigation (which Martha Steward got put in prison for.) She violated classified materials, which no other person in American history has walked away from without an indictment.

In short, it would certainly appear the only reason Hillary is not in prison is because of corruption.

Trump could be called a fascist for some of his positions. But this is not one of them. A special prosecutor should be ordered to re-investigate this matter to clear the air. If Hillary is innocent, she has nothing to worry about.

The Mound of Sound said...

It "would certainly appear" that way to you, Anon. Fortunately your conspiracy theory opinion doesn't matter except to your like minded types. It certainly cuts no ice here but you knew that, didn't you?

Anonymous said...

Anyong: Most Americans know they don't have much of a selection from which to vote. Therefore, it might be a good idea to reinstate Obama for another two years while the American people choose others to run for the Presidency.

The Mound of Sound said...

That would entail suspending the constitution, Anyong, which is perhaps as slippery a slope as could be imagined. No, that won't happen nor should it.