Sunday, November 20, 2016

Incoming AG Sessions and a Clinton Prosecution

Via Billy

 

There’s been much discussion since Hillary Clinton’s stunning defeat of whether or when she’ll be pardoned. Of course, the first thing about a pardon would be the admission of guilt, so that much is interesting all by itself. Barack Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, pointedly did not answer the question of whether his boss would pardon Clinton. And Donald Trump has so far demurred about continued prosecution, even going so far as calling the Clinton’s “good people” and saying, “I don’t want to hurt them.”

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote a fairly lengthy consideration of the various options. (Don’t miss the whole thing.) Would Obama or Trump pardon Hillary? What political capital would it cost to do so? Conversely, would Trump allow the FBI’s investigation to proceed, or would he seek a special prosecutor as he warned on the campaign trail? McCarthy writes, “This is one of what will no doubt be many things that Mr. Trump will find were easier to say in the heat of the moment (a contentious debate between the candidates) than to do in his new political reality. During the campaign, nothing damaged Clinton as badly as the specter of criminal jeopardy. But now Trump has been elected, and he has a governing agenda that will require cooperation from Capitol Hill. A prosecution of Clinton would provoke Democratic outrage, which means media outrage, which, in turn, means Republican panic.”

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