Obama Intervened, Repeatedly, in Ongoing Trials and Investigations

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Few of the critics who are treating President Donald Trump’s comments on Roger Stone’s sentencing — widely viewed as unduly harsh — as an attack on the rule of law showed such strong concerns when then-President Barack Obama weighed in, repeatedly, on ongoing trials or investigations.

In 2015, President Obama told CBS news that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of an unsecured private email server for her official communications may have been a “mistake,” but added: “I don’t think it posed a national security problem.”

The New York Times reported that FBI officials: “saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation — and not for the first time.” The officials recalled Obama’s comments in 2012 defending then-CIA director David Petraeus, who was under investigation for sharing classified information with a journalist with whom he was having an affair.

In 2013, a Navy judge ruled that President Obama had exerted “unlawful command influence” by harsh comments about the punishment he expected the military would mete out against those accused of sexual harassment. Obama had told a press conference in 2012: “If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”

As a result, the Navy judge ruled out dishonorable discharge as a potential punishment in ongoing cases. Later, the conviction of a Marine staff sergeant was thrown out because of the possible influence of Obama’s words.

Ironically, Obama’s harsh language made prosecuting sexual assault more difficult. But the media did not turn his clumsy intervention into a national debate about the rule of law.

There was greater controversy when President Barack Obama weighed in on the arrest of a Harvard professor in 2009.

Obama said that Cambridge, Massachusetts, police “acted stupidly” when arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in July 2009. Gates had locked himself out of his home and forced the door open; a neighbor called police, and a confrontation ensued after Sgt. James Crowley arrived and asked for ID. – READ MORE

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