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NRaleighLiberal

(60,013 posts) Mon Mar 6, 2017, 07:13 PM Mar 2017

TPM - "Trump Asking Congress To Probe Bizarre Wiretap Claims Shows Limit Of His Power"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-requesting-congressional-investigation-alleged-obama-wiretapping-belies-his-authority

By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published MARCH 6, 2017, 6:00 PM EDT

President Donald Trump’s tweet first, ask questions later approach to governance took an odd turn this weekend.

The White House asked Congress to investigate allegations, first laid out by the President in a series of early morning tweets on Saturday, that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election. Congressional experts who spoke with TPM said the President has no authority to direct lawmakers’ investigations, and that it is a bizarre move for the commander-in-chief to ask Congress to investigate himself.

“The investigative power of committee is a congressional tool, not a presidential tool. That the President would assume that he could essentially demand or dictate to Congress that they change the focus of an investigation is I think pretty much unprecedented," Bruce Miroff, an expert on the U.S. presidency at the University of Albany, explained. "And it is a reminder again that, to put it bluntly, Trump doesn’t understand the separation of power system.”

“You’re seeing the limits of his authority right now,” Josh Huder of Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute told TPM. “In terms of what he can tell Congress to do, he’s reached the maxed out potential for that.”

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