Trump is blatantly assaulting rule of law
House counsel Donald McGahn he wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton. McGahn responded that Trump didn’t have the authority to do so, and such action might even lead to impeachment.
Yet Trump has continued to press Justice Department officials about the status of Clinton-related investigations.
Never mind that Trump’s senior adviser and daughter, Ivanka Trump, sent hundreds messages on her private email server to government employees and aides that detailed government business, policies and proposals.
Breaking the rule of law doesn’t require consistency. It requires only a thirst for power at whatever cost.
The third principle of the rule of law is that a president must be respectful of the independence of the judiciary.
Yet Trump has done the opposite, openly ridiculing judges who disagree with him in order to fuel public distrust of them — as he did when he called the judge who issued the first federal ruling against his travel ban a “so-called” judge.
Last week, Trump referred derisively to the judge who put a hold on Trump’s plan for refusing to consider asylum applications an “Obama judge,” and railed against the entire 9th circuit. “You go the 9th Circuit and it’s a disgrace,” he said. He also issued a subtle threat: “It’s not going to happen like this anymore.”
In an unprecedented public rebuke of a sitting president, Chief Justice John Roberts condemned Trump’s attack. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said.
Almost a half-century ago, another president violated these three basic principles of the rule of law, although not as blatantly as Trump. Richard Nixon tried to obstruct the Watergate investigation, pushed the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies and took on the judiciary.
But America wouldn’t allow it. The nation rose up in outrage. Nixon resigned before Congress impeached him.
The question is whether this generation of Americans will have the strength and wisdom to do the same.