By Robert Reich
Democracies depend on what’s known
as the “rule of law.” 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.
Yet in recent weeks Trump fired
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who at least had possessed enough integrity to
recuse himself from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s
possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, and replaced him
with an inexperienced loyalist hack, Matthew G. Whitaker – whose only
distinction to date has been loud and public condemnation of the investigation.
As a conservative legal commentator
on CNN, Whitaker even suggested that a clever attorney general could secretly
starve the investigation of funds.
There’s no question why Trump
appointed Whitaker. When asked by the Daily Caller, Trump made it clear: “As
far as I’m concerned this is an investigation that should have never been
brought. It should have never been had…. It’s an illegal investigation.”
Yet Trump has repeatedly pushed the
Justice Department to bring charges against Hillary Clinton, his 2016 rival,
for using a private email server when she was Secretary of State, in alleged
violation of the Presidential Records Act.
During his campaign, Trump led
crowds in chanting “lock her up,” called Clinton “crooked Hillary,” and
threatened to prosecute her if he was elected president.
After taking office, according to
the New York Times, Trump told White House counsel Donald McGahn he
wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton. McGahn responded that Trump
didn’t have the authority to do so, and such action might even lead to
impeachment.
Yet Trump has continued to press
Justice Department officials – including Whitaker, when he served as Sessions’s
chief of staff – about the status of Clinton-related investigations.
Never mind that Trump’s senior
adviser and daughter, Ivanka Trump sent hundreds messages on her private email server
to government employees and aides that detailed government business, policies,
and proposals. Or that other Trump officials have used their private email to
conduct official business as well.
Breaking the rule of law doesn’t
require consistency. It requires only a thirst for power at whatever
cost.
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 – as he did when he called the judge who issued the first federal
ruling against his travel ban a “so-called” judge.
Last week Trump referred derisively
to the judge who put a hold on Trump’s plan for refusing to consider asylum
applications an “Obama judge,” and railed against the entire ninth circuit.
"You go the 9th Circuit and it’s a disgrace,” he said. He also issued a
subtle threat: “It’s not going to happen like this anymore.“
In an unprecedented public rebuke of
a sitting president, John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
condemned Trump’s attack. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush
judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said. “What we have is an extraordinary
group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those
appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be
thankful for.”
Trump immediately shot back: “Sorry
Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they
have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the
safety of our country.” This was followed by another Trump threat: “Much talk
over dividing up the 9th Circuit into 2 or 3 Circuits. Too big!”
Almost a half-century ago, another
president violated these three basic principles of the rule of law. Richard
Nixon tried to obstruct the Watergate investigation, pushed the Justice
Department to prosecute his political enemies, and took on the judiciary.
But America wouldn’t allow it. The
nation rose up in outrage. Nixon resigned before Congress impeached him.
The question before us is whether
this generation of Americans will have the strength and wisdom to do the
same.
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is
available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
"Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original
documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
