Prosecuting Political Opponents--The Stuff Of Dictators

[DonViejo]

Trump Doesn’t Understand that Presidents Don’t Turn Whims Into Criminal Prosecutions

By Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport New York Editor

The import of what Trump had in mind in wanting to prosecute his political opponents criminally is still sinking in.

Such an action certainly would have been a deep abuse of power and probably grounds for impeachment. Yet, in the current run of acts and words from the Oval Office, it is passing as just another hyperbolic bombshell from a president bent on breaking all rules, traditions and limitations.

As such, it is as sad a commentary on current affairs as it is an outrage. We ought to be fitting Trump with a tin hat to match his dictator ambitions.

The New York Times disclosed on Tuesday night that Trump had told White House counsel Don McGahn in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

Apparently, it was only because McGahn warned Trump that he could face possible impeachment for doing so that Trump backed off.

The most concerning part here is not the fate of Hillary Clinton or James Comey, but the idea that Trump thinks that ordering individual prosecutions by the Justice Department is perfectly normal. As The Times noted, “The encounter was one of the most blatant examples yet of how Trump views the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. It took on additional significance in recent weeks when McGahn left the White House and Trump appointed a relatively inexperienced political loyalist, Matthew G. Whitaker, as the acting attorney general.”

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https://www.dcreport.org/2018/11/23/prosecuting-political-opponents-the-stuff-of-dictators/

[marble falls]

1. I bet those orthotic boots really help ease the debilitating pain of phantom bone spurs ...

Its all part the personal misconceptions about being President his superficial knowledge about the Presidency and projection of power engenders. He conflates being the most powerful elected official in the world with having all the power in the world.

[duforsure]

2. He'll claim everyone is the enemies,

For catching corrupt criminal trump, and he'll claim its all a plot against America, when again its the opposite of the truth, he's the one plotting to overthrow this government of OURS, and he's the enemy. His history is full of examples of him doing this, accuse others of what he's doing.