President Trump told the White House counsel last spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey, reports the New York Times. Then-counsel Donald McGahn rebuffed the president, saying that he had no authority to order a prosecution. McGahn said that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo for Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face a range of consequences, including possible impeachment.
The case was one of the most blatant examples of how Trump views the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. It took on additional significance when McGahn left the White House and Mr. Trump appointed a relatively inexperienced political loyalist, Matthew Whitaker, as acting attorney general. Trump has repeatedly expressed disappointment in FBI director Christopher Wray, for failing to more aggressively investigate Mrs. Clinton, calling him weak. It is not clear which accusations Trump wanted prosecutors to pursue. He has accused Comey, without evidence, of illegally having classified information shared with the New York Times in a memo that Comey wrote about his interactions with the president. The document contained no classified information. Trump has grown frustrated with Wray for what the president sees as his failure to investigate Mrs. Clinton’s role in the Obama administration’s decision to allow the Russian nuclear agency to buy a uranium mining company. Conservatives have long pointed to donations to the Clinton family foundation by people associated with the company, Uranium One, as proof of corruption.