Trump tweeted over the weekend that he knew then-national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador before firing him in February — and before FBI Director James B. Comey said Trump asked him to be lenient while investigating Flynn. Experts said the president’s admission increased his legal exposure to obstruction-of-justice charges, one of the core crimes under investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
But Trump’s personal lawyer John Dowd sought to excuse the president’s tweet in part by telling Axios and NBC News on Monday that the ‘president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case.’
(Washington Post, December 4, 2017)
Well, who could have seen this coming? Oh wait:
Richard Nixon famously intoned that ‘when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.’ This seems the kind of self-deluding logic that animates Trump’s presidency. …
We know the fate that befell Nixon for thinking he was a law unto himself. I suspect a similar fate will befall Trump.
(“Trump Decertifying Iran Nuclear Deal more MALO than MAGA,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 13, 2017)
I elaborated on this foreboding symmetry months earlier in “Channeling Nixon, Trump Fires FBI Director,” May 9, 2017.
Therefore, I will only add that – in commentaries like “Evangelicals Supporting Donald Trump Like Israelites Worshipping Golden Calf,” January 20, 2016 – I lamented the willful willingness of so many to sacrifice their personal and professional integrity at the altar of Trump’s political ambition. But even I am surprised that a seasoned and respected lawyer like Dowd would do the same.
Except that Evangelicals supported Trump, an accused serial rapist, for president. And they are now compounding their moral backsliding by supporting Roy Moore, an accused serial child molester, for senator. Therefore, given this, I suppose nothing should be surprising when it comes to moral turpitude and rank hypocrisy in this age of Trump.
Related commentaries:
Trump decertifying…
Channeling Nixon…
Evangelicals supporting trump…
Roy Moore…