Trump's Personal Lawyer And Campaign Manager Both Going To Prison

[Final-Fan]

NightlyPoe said:

Final-Fan said:

I don't think he follows through on those tweets.  "Go after" would mean directing them (FBI) to put major resources into digging through their (police) entire lives looking for any little thing to nail them on for the explicit purpose of crippling the investigation against himself, due to the distraction if nothing else. 

Can't say I know the law on that and what the limits are, so I won't comment further.  But active policing is something Congress does have a say in and that the Constitution has limits on.  So it wouldn't fall under the same umbrella.  It's not the same as prosecutorial discretion.

If we're talking about prosecutorial discretion, aren't we in the gray area between the executive and judicial branches?  I imagine that the president's powers aren't unfettered there either.  I believe people have gotten in trouble for abusing prosecutorial discretion.

I had thought you were talking about what might be called "investigatorial discretion", i.e. "don't investigate this guy", which is close to a mirror equivalent to "investigate the hell out of these guys", my hypothetical. 

For that matter, the subject of the investigation (the "active policing" you mentioned) isn't directly relevant, but the president's actions would indirectly affect it.  I'm posting in a hurry, but I'm not convinced at a glance that an indirect effect of this nature would run afoul of the limits you suggest.  Maybe, though. 

Last edited by Final-Fan - on 28 August 2018