"I don't want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn yet," President Trump said Friday morning.
The word doing the work in that sentence, the word flashing in neon, is "yet."
In his remarks on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump also announced that "we're going to rebuild the FBI," claiming that "when you look at what's going on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry."
"It's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, he said, dismissing its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as "really disgraceful."
Let's unpack these remarks, because they are politically and legally explosive in a number of ways.
1.) It's one thing to talk about a possible pardon once a criminal case has concluded. When you dangle a pardon in front of a prosecution witness who may testify against you, doing so while the case is still very active, that opens the door further to an obstruction of justice charge.
2.) "We're going to rebuild the FBI" sounds an awful lot like a threat to purge that agency of anyone considered less than loyal not to the country or Constitution, but to the president himself. But then again, maybe it isn't. Maybe that's an overreaction.
The problem is that the second, benign interpretation becomes much harder to sustain given that Trump has already fired the previous FBI director for lack of political loyalty. And why is Trump so upset with the FBI? In his own words, he's angry because it failed to prosecute his biggest political enemy, the woman who was targeted at the GOP convention with chants of "lock her up." That kind of intimidation has no place in American democracy.
3.) Hours before Trump's statement, the White House also sent out a spokesman to complain on Fox News about "extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time." I don't know what further evidence is needed of a political agenda for these attacks.
4.) These threats against the leadership of the FBI, the agency charged with investigating the Trump administration in a case that has already produced four felony charges and two guilty pleas, also invite an obstruction of justice charge. Attacking the credibility of the prosecution is a standard defense tactic, but when the person issuing the threats is the president of the United States, with the power to turn threats into action, it takes on a whole 'nother meaning.
In recent weeks, while GOP backbenchers have attacked Robert Mueller with all kinds of bizarre conspiracy theories, top congressional Republicans have been pretty responsible about reiterating their support for Mueller's investigation, and for letting it play out.
"My view on that is let Bob Mueller do his job, let the professionals do their jobs," House Speaker Paul Ryan said last month.
"All I know at this point is the president should let the special counsel do his job," Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley said in late October.
"I would encourage my Republican friends, give the guy a chance to do his job," U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy said. "The result will be known by the facts, by what he uncovers."
"The legal process is working. Just let it work," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said a few weeks ago. "Let Mueller do his job."
"There's been no indication that the president or the White House are not cooperating with the special counsel," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last month. "I think the view up here is let [Mueller] do his job."
I don't think the president is getting the message, gentlemen.
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