This Wouldn't Pass The Jury Duty Test

This investigation of Trump has reached epic proportions of foolishness. I have been critical of so called "special prosecutors" and the like since I cast a questioning eye on what happened to Bill Clinton. For those not old enough (or informed enough), Ken Star was appointed as a special prosecutor or independent investigator due to the alleged illegalities involving Whitewater. In that case there was a Savings and Loans investigation in which the Clintons were seen as witnesses. Whatever you may think of the Clintons, there was at least the cover of an actual criminal proceeding of actual criminal acts by somebody. The problem was that Bill Clinton was impeached not because of an actual finding related to Whitewater but because Bill lied when asked about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. This is the problematic part.

Why was there even a question about Bill and Monica? What bearing did it have on Whitewater? None. The Whitewater investigation was allowed to grow in scope way beyond it's intent and became a means of hurting a president that Republicans didn't like.

Today we have a far more blatant and brazen act of political assassination. Democrats and Never Trump Republicans have made it clear they want Trump out of office. In sane times such blatant partisanship would sink any so called "independent investigation" because such partisans cannot be trusted to act objectively. If we recall, this entire "investigation" started out as investigation into Russia interference but has now morphed into "obstruction of justice". How you can claim obstruction of justice when there is no criminal investigation (or civil investigation) ongoing in which someone has been properly served is beyond me.

Of course the claim is that by firing Comey, Trump "obstructed justice" because Comey was investigating Russia. Lets take the argument on it's face. If a District Attorney decides to not prosecute a criminal case against a suspect, is that obstruction of justice? If a State's Attorney tells his underlings to not press a case against an individual and to drop charges, is that obstruction of justice or is that the person using their legal powers of discretion? If it is use of legal powers of discretion, then Trump has not "obstructed justice". Trump, as chief executive has the power to ultimately decide who in the justice dept. does what. Congress of course is free to to whatever it wants under it's own constitutionally provided powers. But this is not even the worst of it.

Those of us who have done jury duty knows that when we are subject to questioning to get onto a jury we are asked many questions. The purpose of these questions is generally to weed out those who may be prejudiced for or against the parties involved. So for example, if the case involves a police officer and you are married to a police officer it is likely you will be removed from the jury pool. It's not that you're a bad person, it's just that the court has to eliminate even the appearance of prejudice. We know that Comey used his "memo" (which, as of this writing has not been delivered to congress) in order to get an investigation of Trump started. This is a clear partisan motive. This very statement is reason enough to have this farce stopped immediately. This is clearly not about alleged criminal activity, it is about politics.

Worse though the people involved in the investigation have ties to Hillary Clinton and the DNC. If this was a potential jury, these people would be removed. Again, this doesn't mean they are bad people. This doesn't mean they are incompetent. This means it looks bad and when it comes to investigations the investigators shouldn't have any kind of appearance to "have it in" for the target.

But speaking of obstruction of justice, why hasn't such charges been leveled at Clinton? We know that she purposely had data removed from phones and servers. THAT is obstruction. This is on top of the removal of classified information from govt. servers. Comey himself said that she was negligent. Negligence is covered under the relevant statute. If Trump can be merely investigated for exercising his lawful power to fire the head of the FBI for any reason he chooses. Hillary should be in jail right now and Lynch should be cooling her heels in there with her.

But again this is something we would expect in a sane world and sane government. But we don't have that.