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Trump's Assault on the Rule of Law ... The
“rule of law” distinguishes democracies from dictatorships. It’s based on three
fundamental principles. Trump is violating every one of them.
The first is that no person is above the law, not even a president. Which
means a president cannot stop an investigation into his alleged illegal acts
...
The second principle of the rule of law is that a president cannot
prosecute political opponents or critics. Decisions about whom to prosecute for
alleged criminal wrongdoing must be made by prosecutors who are independent of
politics ...
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
https://prospect.org/article/trumps-assault-on-rule-law
Undated: The Trump Administration and the
Rule of Law ...
Since the 2016 presidential election, the Trump Administration has made policy
and protocol changes that have sparked constitutional questions. Columbia Law
School faculty, alumni, staff, and students, no matter their political views,
have been actively engaged in these robust public policy debates, whether by
holding panel discussions, publishing research, or participating as advocates
and litigators.
http://www.law.columbia.edu/donald-trump-constitution-rule-law
November 1:Top Justice official says Trump
respects 'the rule of law'
Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks
on the media, his calls to prosecute his political opponents and his firing of
the FBI director at least in part for an investigation into Trump’s own
campaign, a top Justice Department official insisted Wednesday that there was
evidence that the president is committed to the rule of law and the First
Amendment.
In a speech to an audience of judges and attorneys in Washington, Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Trump’s nominations of distinguished
lawyers to top Justice Department posts demonstrated his fidelity to “American
values.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/01/rosenstein-justice-trump-law-244443
December 5: Trump’s latest attack on the
rule of law ... about President Trump’s tweets:
They violate norms of law-enforcement independence from presidential influence.
Their proximate aim is to discredit the Justice Department and FBI, probably in
order to delegitimize it as the investigation of Robert Mueller gets ever closer
to the president. And they appear to be part of an effort to weaken public
confidence in American institutions more generally—not just DOJ, but also the
“so-called” courts, the “fake news” media, the supposedly lying, incompetent
intelligence community, and others.
December 19: Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz on
Friday denied being an advocate for President Trump, saying instead that he was
only a champion of the rule of law and the Constitution.
January 6: Donald Trump and the Rule of Law
By filling key positions in an acting capacity rather than
through Senate confirmation, President Trump has created a cadre of officials
who are accountable only to him.
February 1:
The radical idea buried in Trump's State of the Union ...
He declared a new front on his war on government. But it's not clear how he can
win it.
February 2: Donald Trump Just Asked Congress to End the Rule of
Law
Trump’s speech was ... deeply dangerous ... Trump called on Congress to give him
unprecedented and unquestionably antidemocratic powers: “Tonight,” he said, “I
call on the congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to
reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public
trust or fail the American people.”
By
design, it is easy to overlook the true significance of the second half of that
phrase. But dwell on it for a moment, and imagine what this would actually look
like in practice. Under Trump’s proposal, any Cabinet secretary could decide
that, say, a law enforcement official investigating the president had
“undermined the public trust” or “failed the American people”—and fire him on
the spot. In other words, Trump is calling for an end to any semblance of
independence for the IRS, the FBI, the Department of Justice, or any other
federal agency.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/donald-trump-just-asked-congress-to-end-the-rule-of-law.html?via=recirc_engaged
November 24:Donald Trump is attacking the rule of
law and may well get away with it
ON THE EVIDENCE available, most
Americans do not think President Donald Trump has committed a high crime or
misdemeanour. Only a third of voters say he should be impeached over his alleged
complicity in Russia’s election-hacking and alleged effort to stop the Justice
Department investigating it. The matter was hardly discussed in the mid-terms,
and the most prominent Democrats who aired it—such as Beto O’Rourke in Texas’s
Senate race—lost.
December 23: President Donald Trump is
jeopardizing “the rule of law” by discussing his legal situation with acting
Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the incoming chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee said reports that Trump has expressed frustration with
Whitaker about federal prosecutors in New York indicated misconduct at the very
top of the Trump administration.
“The president of the United States is discussing a case in which he is
implicated with the attorney general,” Schiff told host Jake Tapper. “That is
wrong at every level. And, of course, it will taint anything that this acting
attorney general does, any role he plays in this investigation.”
“This is a real assault on the rule of law,” Schiff added.
“This is exactly what we feared about Whitaker’s appointment, that he was picked
not because he was qualified for the job — he really isn’t — but he was picked
because he was auditioning on TV talking down the Mueller investigation,” Schiff
said.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/23/schiff-trump-whitaker-rule-law-1074564
