Is it extortion?

[kentuck]

To threaten to fire someone under you, if they do not follow your orders to lie for them?

(Especially if it threatens the existence of our democracy)

[elleng]

1. the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

[Hoyt]

2. Whatever it's called, it's deplorable as is asking an election official to find

you 11,708 votes.

But it likely won’t get trump indicted, almost certainly not inprisoned. It should, but it won’t in this case.

[left-of-center2012]

3. I doubt that meets the legal definition of extortion

Sounds like some kind of a threat but it doesn't seem to be :extorting' something.

[kentuck]

4. Sounds like he wanted to swap the promise of a job for a public lie?

No money exchanged but it does sound illegal, in my opinion. (But I am no lawyer or expert on the law)

[left-of-center2012]

5. Try googling the definition of extortion n/t

[kentuck]

7. This is the definition I found:

"Criminal extortion: A person who threatens a person, or his or her property or reputation, to induce that person to act against his will to do an act or refrain from doing a lawful act commits a class 4 felony."

[Sympthsical]

6. Can you detail what you're discussing?

You're referencing something in the news or on TV, but it's impossible to tell what based on the OP.

[kentuck]

8. Just discussing the definition of "extortion" in general...

...but related to the testimony of the former US Attorney that quit his job because he did not want to lie for Donald Trump and say the election was rigged.

[Sympthsical]

9. It wasn't extortion. Political appointments are different things.

They serve at the President's pleasure. Firings and resignations of US attorneys happen out of political disagreement all the time. A President can do it for no reason at all.

What's salient is if he asked the person to do anything illegal. In this case, the answer is no. Trump never even spoke to Pak directly. It filtered down to him that Trump was all pissed off he wasn't opening investigations into voter fraud. He took that as a sign he might be fired. Since he was leaving before Jan. 20th anyway, he figured, "Nah, I'm out. Peace!" He didn't want the stain of it on him.

Opening an investigation isn't an illegal act, especially when tons of (false) fraud claims were flying around.

Trump was being the Asshole President, but being King of the Assholes isn't illegal.

[kentuck]

10. Good point.

But was it opening a legitimate "investigation", or was it for more nefarious purposes? Either way, it would probably be difficult to prove in that instance?

[Sympthsical]

11. Politics drive investigations all the time

They shouldn't, but they do. Look at the DOJ. What they do and do not bother to investigate is often made with prosecutorial discretion. Congress does the same. There was nothing illegal about investigating Clinton's e-mails. It was just an asshole thing to do. All you need is a pretext. "We think something wrong happened here, so we're going to look into it."

Of course, we know it was politically motivated.

Still legal, though.