CNN
NYTimes Image
Last Thursday Trump expressed heavy criticisms against US law enforcement and the Justice Department. Trump stated on the Larry O'Connor show: "The saddest thing is that because I'm the President of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department, I am not supposed to be involved with the FBI." Trump has become increasingly frustrated with his lack of influence over the continuing investigation of his presidential campaign's involvement with Russia (I wonder why), especially in light of the recent Mueller indictments (apparently there's a chance he'll fire Mueller). Trump instead believes that the FBI and Justice Department should be prioritizing investigations on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign for such crimes as money laundering or violation of campaign finance laws.
There are two ends to the controversy behind Trump's statements. On the one hand, many believe that there should remain some insulation between law enforcement and politics, and that the executive branch should not directly oversee the actions of the Justice Department. In this way, the government can be held accountable by law enforcement. On the other hand, some believe that there should not be a buffer between law enforcement and politics, so that law enforcement can be held accountable by the government in the case of civil liberties violations.
Do you have any thoughts on Trump's attitude and/or comments towards the Justice Department? Where do you stand on this matter? Insulation, no insulation, or somewhere in between? Perhaps there is a solution in which the government and law enforcement can check and balance each other?
21 comments:
I believe it is a good thing that the Justice Department and the executive branch can check and balance each other. The Justice Department's recent activities on the Trump investigation is definitely a good safety measure against corruption in politics and government. However, America is founded on the principle that every man is innocent until proven guilty, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. I don't know much about the investigation, but continuously digging through someone's things for an extensive period of time until you find something incriminating seems somewhat unfair. I feel there should be a time limit, if one doesn't already exist, for these investigations. In the past, the longer an investigation has been conducted on a political official, the more their acceptance and trustworthiness diminishes, even if nothing has been found. While President Trump is certainly not an ordinary president, the other branches of government should remain as they always have, and treat him as any other president to effectively function as the representative body of the United States.
It seems that Trump somewhat misinterprets the role of the FBI director and the attorney general as his "personal agents." The FBI and the Justice Department are both supposed to be somewhat non-partisan and politically independent institutions. James Comey was an independent, and Trump already too far by dismissing James Comey when there was a clear conflict of interest. The independence and non-partisan state of those institutions is especially important when there's an investigation related to the President - that's a clear conflict of interest. Trump's statements are also really worrying in that they threaten the reputation and image of the Justice Department and law enforcement. Trump seems to too readily attempt to meddle with affairs outside of the scope of his office - for example, his tweet calling for the death penalty of the NYC terrorist could potentially affect the court ruling.
Although I understand the desire for privacy, I believe people need to know when to step back and let the FBI and the justice department do their jobs. In this case, especially since it involves the President of the United States himself, there are serious implications for the future of the country depending on the results of the investigations. Trump appears to have the mentality that as president he gets to "rule everything." The system of checks and balances was created for a reason. Trump needs to respect the independence of the justice department and stop impeding the flow of government.
I think it is self-incriminating that Trump is acting the way he is. If there are no secrets that he is hiding, then why is acting like this? I believe that there should be insulation between the branches. We do not want to skew the people judging on this matter. It is just a matter of time before Trump gets impeached honestly.
I think that the Justice Department has every right to continue the investigation against Trump. There has been incriminating evidence found against his campaign: the Department of Homeland Security declared that Russia was behind the DNC hackings and the dispersal of fake news during Trump's run for presidency. Trump's advisers have also openly admitted to meeting with Russian officials in 2016 before the election results were released. That being said, I think that it is logical and well within the right of the FBI and Justice Department to continue the investigation if they believe there may be a case for misdemeanor, felony, or impeachment in Donald Trump's candidacy. I also think that while it is a waste of time and money to continue digging in an investigation which yields no new evidence pointing to any suspect for an extended amount of time, I think the FBI should be allowed to pursue an investigation for as long as they want if they have substantial evidence to justify their meddling, which I believe they do in this case. Trump seems to believe that he should not be involved in the FBI, but any American citizen should be involved with the FBI and under investigation if they are suspected of committing a crime. Being president does not excuse Trump from any of that.
The current system works well already, where the President has little power over the operations of the Justice System. Too much governmental control over law enforcement has bad results, as we've already seen in Watergate. Trump's actions seem like they may be indicative of suspicious behavior... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I think that the solution is for Trump to stop complaining about his lack of power in a field that he intentionally has no power over. As Meiling says, the FBI director is supposed to be an independent, apolitical chief investigative authority, and only reports to the Attorney General, not the president. While it is true that he is nominated by the president and is liable to be fired at the President's discretion, the director of the FBI is not supposed to have any personal or partisan loyalty towards the president, especially in the case of a Presidential investigation. To suggest otherwise is outwardly endorsing corruption.
Trump seems to disagree with this mindset, as he fired James Comey after Comey refused to discontinue the Russia investigation, illustrating a clear desire to exercise influence over the branch of government that is meant to hold him accountable. In fact, according to Comey, Trump even tried to make Comey pledge his loyalty to him (Comey refused), an outright attempt to make himself immune to the rule of law. Overall, while Trump would have otherwise, there is a clear and distinct barrier between the Executive Branch and the Justice Department, and to fudge that line is to open the doors of corruption.
I think that the government should have some control over the justice department but Trump's remarks seem too extreme. His remark about having control over the Justice Department's investigation of the election doesn't seem well thought out. Of course since he has executive power, he should be able to regulate the Justice Department so that they aren't too powerful, but that doesn't mean that he should have the privilege to have a lot of power over them. I also think that your idea of checks and balances is interesting. It would be much safer for the country if there was more means through which the president's power wasn't too overwhelming.
I think the department should continue to do as they think is needed and Trump has to stop complaining about it. The reason he's upset is because he's the one being investigated and it he wasn't he wouldn't even want control over the justice department. He can't have the department following whatever cases he wishes or the department wouldn't work well.It would be corrupt of him to have control. if he had control that would give him too much power and it wouldn't be safe for people.
the department of justice should continue to investigate Russia's involvement with the 2016 Election. Trump's is making comments towards the Justice dept., because he's scared of getting caught. If he know's that he didn't rig the election, then he should not have a problem with the justice dept. investigating him. Trump needs to start respecting the independence of the justice department and stop stopping/interfering with the flow of government.
Just as Arthur said, a checks and balances system between law enforcement and the executive branch is an excellent idea. If Trump could control what the law enforcement did, then this country's government would become a complete dictatorship. However, if the law enforcement was not somewhat kept in check by the government, then the law enforcement could also abuse its own power, creating even worse situations for Americans. Trump states that the law enforcement should focus on Hillary, however we should think about who has the most power. Trump is the president of the United States and therefore should be thoroughly checked in order to ensure that there has been no compromise of safety or information in the government. Only after this complete investigation can the law enforcement start searching the incidents surrounding Hillary. Thanks to Trump's lack of control over the investigations, we can find out if there really is a connection between him and Russia. So far, there has been some progress in finding that some of Trump's campaign officials were involved with Russia.
The current system is fine and they should continue to investigate Russia's collusion with the election. Trump's comments and possible actions towards Mueller tells us that something is fishy regarding Trump and Russia and that he is hiding something that he does not want everyone to see (kind of like Watergate). It is likely that Mueller is close to finding something or a breakthrough and Trump is giving signs that he is trying to thwart the investigation.
Trump needs to stay out of it and respect the DOJ as an independent body from the executive branch.
Checks and balances between the different parts of the federal government exist for a reason, and I definitely believe that there should be a distinction between the President and other parts of the executive branch, such as law enforcement, especially when an ongoing investigation may involve the President. Were the President able to heavily influence such an investigation, the amount of corruption within government would only increase. For the Americans who aren't heavily biased towards Trump, his whining about directing the investigation towards Hillary instead is useless and comes off as extremely unprofessional.
Trump's pressuring of the Justice Department and F.B.I. basically goes against America's confidence in their institutions. His way of using authority directing those is obscene. Agreeing with Meiling, her statements of Trump being too eager to meddle with affairs outside of his scope of office. The Department of Justice and F.B.I. have the rights to have their own individual institutions, and discuss independently within their institutions. Through the system of checks and balances there is a clear depiction on what measures of influence each branch has and Trump should follow what it states.
It is interesting that almost a full year (on 11/9) after the election, Trump is still using any possible Hilary scandals to take attention off of him. It is worrying to me that even as President of the most powerful country in the world, Trump still wants more influence and seeks to undermine the checks and balances put in place by a document considered basically sacred to the majority of politicians. I agree with Meiling that Trump seems to misunderstand the tasks by the majority of government jobs and thinjs that they are there to help him. He fails to understand that the government is not centered around the president, but ideally is centered around the people.
It is pretty suspicious that he is this frustrated over the investigation by the FBI. If there was truly no campaign involvement with Russia, then Trump would not have anything to worry about. Also, his shift of topic to investigate Hillary Clinton's alleged crimes shows how he needs to shift the idea away from his own investigation, but again, why would he have to worry about his own investigation when he proposed that he had no involvement with Russia. The FBI should continue their investigation, and no further changes to expand the powers of the president into other branches is needed.
I believe that Trump is attempting to expand his power as president even further. He wants to stick his hand into the justice system of the government in order to protect himself from any alleged scandals about himself. In doing so, he is undermining the entire idea of checks and balances. The current power distinction is perfectly fine as is, the president has no right to meddle with the justice department. These 2 systems should be separate and remain separate.
Agreeing with most previous comments, the current system, where the President has little power over the Justice System, works well. Checks and balances exists for a reason and there should be a distinction between the President and law enforcement. Trumps is coming off too strong in office with the mentality that he should control everything and this causes Trump to be viewed as very unprofessional.
As of right now, the public does not have much trust in the government and politicians for many reasons, one of which could be the Russia and Trump Scandal. However, reasons aside, this means the government needs to work towards regaining the trust of Americans. Thus, by insulating the FBI from the executive branch, there will be limited political influence in their investigations and could therefore allow Americans to feel that their government is being lawfully kept in check and may allow the government to begin to gain the trust of the public again.
I agree with the previous comments that Trump may just be frustrated with the FBI because of the Russia incident with the campaign. Similarly, I do believe that there must be some sort of distinct line limiting the amount of political influence in justice department. Just let the justice department do their job because if there is any political influence, it could be seen as corruption.
I agree with most everyone else commenting on this post. The system of checks and balances was one put into place at the founding of America for the purposes of furthering the reach of democracy and Trump's comments seem to suggest that he wishes for these barriers to be massively changed. I do not support the disintegration of checks and balances so I support the justice system continuing their investigation into Trump and his relationship with Russia. Daniel noted that Trump fired Comey after Comey refused to impede the investigation, and while I believe this is a misuse of power, countless presidents of the past have fired people when they don't like what they're doing, so I don't think it's very surprising.
Post a Comment