Uh, that’s not really how the law works. At least not in this country.
Until recently, I suppose.
The Washington Post:
President Trump wanted Attorney General William P. Barr to hold a news conference declaring the commander in chief had broken no laws during a phone call in which he pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate a political rival, though Barr ultimately declined to do so, people familiar with the matter said.
The request from Trump traveled from the president, to other White House officials, and eventually to the Justice Department. The president has mentioned Barr’s declination to associates in recent weeks, saying he wished Barr would have held the news conference, Trump advisers say.
According to The Post, Trump requested the news conference around the same time the administration released the transcript-not-a-transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As the rough transcript was released, a Justice Department spokeswoman said officials had evaluated it and the whistleblower complaint to see if campaign finance laws had been broken, determined they had not and decided “no further action was warranted.”
It was not immediately clear why Barr would not go beyond that statement with a publicly televised assertion that the president broke no laws, nor was it clear how forcefully the president’s desire was communicated.
Okay, that’s just fucking bizarre, no matter how you slice it. But it’s totally in keeping with Trump’s M.O. He has doctors who say he’s the healthiest pr*sident ever, an NOAA that says he was more right about the weather than professional meteorologists, and now this. Next he’ll be ordering the U.S. Mint to declare that that’s him on the $1 bill. Because why the fuck not? If you’re going to force your underlings to bend reality till it breaks, might as well go all out.
I’m frightened for our democracy. It feels like the guardrails are barely holding — and Republicans/administration toadies are breaking them down at the behest of a reality TV star with the intellect of dryer lint.
Does Trump make you want to delete your brain? Of course he does! But don’t do it until you’ve read Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its breathlessly awaited sequel Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing. Reviewers have called these books “hysterically funny,” “cathartic,” and “laugh-out-loud” diversions from our temporary hell on Earth. Don’t delay. Click those links, yo!