Fmr. AG Alberto Gonzales on Trump’s Attempt to Prosecute Hillary and Comey: ‘Very, Very Serious Situation’
Alberto Gonzales, a former U.S. attorney general under the George W. Bush administration, called President Donald Trump’s attempt to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey using the Justice Department “a very, very serious situation.”
“As a matter of constitutional authority, the president would have the authority to make that kind of request, but,you know, if the president had asked me to convey that order to the attorney general, I would have had a very candid conversation with the president as to why that would be inappropriate and dangerous, politically,” Gonzales said on CNN’s New Day this morning. “The consequences could be very, very serious. obviously if there may be an indication of some kind of wrong doing.”
“I might have a quiet conversation with the attorney general or maybe the deputy attorney general to just simply say there are these stories out there and it’s just something you ought to look at, and then leave it at that,” he added. “To convey an order from the president to do an actual investigation is a very serious situation, and one that I would have also pushed back.”
When asked by CNN anchor John Brennan on why this case was such a “serious situation,” Gonzales explained that “because we live in a democracy, you don’t go after your political rivals.”
Yesterday, the New York Times broke the news that Trump had requested Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Matt Whitaker, a chief-of-staff for Jeff Sessions then, to investigate Clinton and Comey — two of his most high profile political enemies.
Watch above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
