Priebus call to FBI violated norms, if not rules

[ProudLib72]

from politico article: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/reince-priebus-fbi-contact-trump-235351

For decades, presidents from both parties have prohibited White House staff from discussing specific investigations and enforcement cases without clearance from the White House counsel.

The rules were developed to prevent even the appearance of political tampering with law enforcement—just the situation the White House finds itself in after a report that President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus asked senior FBI officials, including Director James Comey, to publicly refute a report about Trump associates’ contacts with Russian intelligence.

This is not the first time long standing policies have been abandoned by this administration. It makes me wonder just how powerful these policies are. I would call this a "common sense" policy, but it should also be considered close enough to legal that the DOJ should admonish the WH for breaking with it (at least). This would give it more standing and demonstrate to the public that the WH cannot exercise authoritarian rule over everyone in the government and its agencies.

[Blue_Tires]

1. Remember when interfering or obstructing a federal investigation was bad?

[ProudLib72]

2. It doesn't make sense to me

that all these policies can be broken without consequences. Some will say that the consequences are they are being brought up in the media. But when tRump denigrates the media, those consequences are minimized. I mean, there is a clear disconnect between this administration and the last sixty years of government. Tradition is being stomped on left and right. In a lot of instances, tradition doesn't seem important. This is not one of those instances.