How might a politically motivated prosecution actually unfold? These steps show exactly how Trump could make his threats real — all while staying within the constitutional limits on presidential power.

But only norms and precedents, not laws, prevent this. In our system, the attorney general and the director of the F.B.I. sit within the executive branch and answer to the president.

How might a politically motivated prosecution actually unfold? The steps below show exactly how Trump could make his threats real — all while staying within the constitutional limits on presidential power.

  • sevanEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    They way over-complicated it. Once he installs loyalists (as in their step 1), he can just round up anyone he wants, send them to a private prison run by an aligned billionaire, and ignore the courts. If the people in the departments controlled by the executive are willing to break the law, Congress and the courts don’t really have any tools to combat that.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
      5·
      2 months ago

      Right. There’s impeachment, but actually using it to remove people from power requires a supermajority, which makes it substantially ineffective against a criminal political party

      • sevanEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Right, and that’s assuming he doesn’t just use his “dictator for a day” plan to remove anyone from Congress that opposes him. That’s how other authoritarians create a sham democracy.