2016 ELECTION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump pressed the Justice Department again on Friday [11-3-17] to investigate his political opponents, lashing out at Democrats as he argued that they were the ones who acted corruptly during last year’s election and not his own campaign, which actually is under investigation.
Shortly before leaving Washington for an 12-day trip to Asia, Mr. Trump issued a name-calling blizzard of accusations at Democratic leaders and railed at law enforcement agencies that have refused to prosecute them, even as he acknowledged that presidents are not supposed to intervene in law enforcement decisions. The president’s tweets are not unusual, but 11 of them over 15 hours on Thursday [11-2-17] night and Friday morning were notable.
And he pressed his case off-line as well…
Mr. Trump on Thursday acknowledged that presidents are not supposed to interfere with Justice Department investigations, but he weighed in anyway with a series of Twitter posts early Friday morning and said the department should investigate the Democrats’ activity during the 2016 campaign. The American public, he said, ‘deserves it.’ “
-Peter Baker and Eileen Sullivan, “Trump, Calling Justice Dept. Disappointing, Urges It to Investigate Democrats,” The New York Times online, Nov. 3, 2017