Trump turns the full force of the government on perceived political enemies
President Donald Trump found four former federal officials guilty of “treason” Thursday — and then commissioned his intelligence agencies to help the Department of Justice prove it.
At the same time, he is blocking Congress from executing its constitutional duty to execute oversight of his administration, not only with regard to his campaign’s ties to Russia and the interference detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation but also on a host of other fronts.
He’s wielding power in ways not seen in the United States in generations, if ever, and which many experts say do not resemble global norms for heads of state.
“This is really a feature of petty dictators, where you see the power of investigation abilities being used as a political tool against enemies,” Claire Finkelstein, the director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school, said in a telephone interview. [Continue reading…]