January 17, 2018

Donald Trump and the Rule of Law

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trump-and-the-rule-of-law
"Also last week, the Times reported more evidence suggesting that the President had obstructed justice in connection with the F.B.I.’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and any possible connection to members of the Trump campaign. In March, according to the Times, Trump sent Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, to urge Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General, not to recuse himself from supervising the investigation. Trump did so because he felt that Sessions should be protecting him. “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Trump asked, referring to the right-wing gargoyle who was one of his early political mentors. Sessions, a key figure in the Trump campaign, recognized the obvious fact that he could not investigate the Trump campaign, and properly rebuffed McGahn, but Trump’s malign obsession with the Russia case remains a touchstone of his Presidency. The Times’ revelation makes an obstruction case stronger. Trump asked for loyalty from James Comey, the F.B.I. director, who was supervising the investigation. When Comey equivocated, Trump fired him, then put out a false story for why he did so, which he promptly undermined by admitting the real reason. And when e-mails emerged over the summer showing that Donald Trump, Jr., had met during the campaign with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, the President participated in concocting a bogus story to explain them. (An especially incriminating version of Trump’s role in the e-mail cover story appears in “Fire and Fury,” Michael Wolff’s explosive new book.) Trump’s contempt for the rule of law infects his entire Administration"