Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 31 2023 06:08pm)
There's no evidence of Trump trying to weaponize the DoJ to go after Clinton or other such crusades to mirror what Democrats are doing now, and we're talking about a DoJ that was leaking like a sieve and itching for anything they could give to WaPo to make Trump look bad. I'd say the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence. There was no behind-the-scenes actions. Trump came right out and said it day 1, the hour he was elected, that he would let Hillary go off into the woods and be forgotten. Even for a guy who had such shameless rhetoric about it during the campaign, he turned right around and threw it out the window first opportunity, and we haven't seen a single shred to suggest otherwise since. I mean, Trump is many things, but subtle isn't one of them. His flailings around the 2020 election and search for non-existent fraud and exhorting his minions to find a desperate answer- all a very public record.
First off, the notion that the president has to pressure officials in private for it to qualify as "pressure" or as "weaponizing" makes no sense at all. The president, in public, constantly talking about how Hillary, Comey, and others should be prosecuted certainly counts as trying to weaponize DOJ. Using his public megaphone to pressure DOJ is more significant than pressuring them in private. Discussing the matter in private does not gin up the propagandists and voters from his cult. Posting pictures on Twitter of officials behind bars counts as pressure. I think what's happening here is because you are cool with whatever Donald Trump says, that nothing he says could matter, you believe everybody should feel the same way. But your position makes no sense.
Next, according to Jeff Sessions, Trump did try to pressure him to unrecuse so that Hillary could be investigated.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/18/us/politics/mueller-report-document.html#g-page-319?smid=tw-shareSessions directed US attorneys to look into issues raised by the House GOP concerning Hillary(I guess pressure from Trump is just a coincidence?):
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/13/us/politics/document-Special-Counsel-Department-of-Justice.htmlTrump possibly asked his White House Counsel to order an investigation into Hillary and Comey(this wasn't in Mueller report, so it could be an inaccurate story):
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/president-trump-justice-department.htmlOh, here's an article from 2 days go by a couple of the best reporters who covered Trump:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/politics/trump-justice-system-weaponized.htmlQuote
“He was always telling me that we need to use the F.B.I. and I.R.S. to go after people — it was constant and obsessive and is just what he’s claiming is being done to him now,” said John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s second White House chief of staff.
“I would tell him why it was wrong, and while I was there I did everything I could to steer him away from it and tell him why it was a bad idea,” Mr. Kelly said. “I thought we were successful, but he would often ask a lot of people to do a lot of things that he didn’t want to do himself in the hopes that someone would do it and he could claim he did nothing wrong.”
Quote
In some instances, Mr. Trump acted more quietly and persistently. Among those he wanted to see prosecuted was John F. Kerry, the former senator, Democratic presidential nominee and secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
Mr. Trump maintained that Mr. Kerry had broken the law by staying in touch with Iranian officials with whom he had negotiated a nuclear deal that Mr. Trump was unwinding. As president, Mr. Trump repeatedly pressed senior officials behind closed doors about using the Justice Department to target Mr. Kerry, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Ultimately, federal prosecutors in New York were pushed by senior Justice Department officials in Washington to investigate Mr. Kerry, according to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan at the time.
To end, Ukrainegate was a scandal based on Trump withholding aid to Ukraine, pressuring Zelensky in a phone call, and other things in order to get the desired result of an announced investigation from the Ukrainians into Hunter and Joe Biden. So not only did Trump pressure DOJ constantly... he also pressured the justice department of Ukraine!
And this post is only focused on Trump pressuring DOJ to prosecute his enemies. Another post would be necessary to mention all the instances of him pressuring DOJ to go easy on himself(and his friends).