Read Excerpts From Memos Written for Trump About His Powers to Prosecute

The drafts were written to explain the limits of a president’s ability to go after rivals, invoking legal and constitutional factors and political norms.

Listen to this article · 37:59 min Learn more

  • Share full article

Read Excerpts From Memos Written for Trump About His Powers to Prosecute | INFBusiness.com

By Michael S. Schmidt

Sept. 21, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

The following are excerpts from draft memos written by lawyers in the White House Counsel’s Office in the spring of 2018 in response to demands from President Donald J. Trump for investigations into rivals.

The draft memos were reviewed by Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times during reporting for his 2020 book, “Donald Trump v. the United States.” The book quoted from the memos, the contents of which were dictated by Mr. Schmidt into a tape recorder, but extensive excerpts are being published here for the first time.

White House Counsel’s Office

Privileged, Confidential and Deliberative

April 19, 2018 Draft memorandum

You’ve asked what steps you may lawfully take if you disagree with the Attorney General’s decision not to pursue criminal prosecution or not to conduct further criminal investigation. As explained below, you have legal authority in such circumstances:

1.) To direct the Attorney General to explain why a prosecution or investigation is not being pursued.

2.) To instruct the Attorney General as to how the law should be executed and

3.) To remove the Attorney General from office if you do not believe he is faithfully executing the laws.

You do not have the authority, however, to initiate an investigation or prosecution yourself or circumvent the Attorney General by directing a different official to pursue a prosecution or investigation. Ultimate recourse lies in removing the officer to whom Congress has assigned these responsibilities and then installing an individual whom you believe will faithfully execute the laws. Strong constitutional norms of nonpolitical law enforcement should also guide your decision making and may caution against involvement in a specific matter.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Source: nytimes.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *