> The President cannot go to the Justice department and say "stop investigating me and my political allies or I'll fire you". That second one is what led to Nixon having to resign.
There’s definitely nothing legally stopping the president from doing this. This was the Saturday Night Massacre.
The only thing that can stop this is public perception and the threat of impeachment then removal by the Senate.
> There’s definitely nothing legally stopping the president from doing this.
Ford famously pardoned Nixon, which would imply he believed Nixon would be subject to potential criminal liability. And I believe that should be the case.
> The only thing that can stop this is public perception and the threat of impeachment then removal by the Senate.
That’s certainly what the Supreme Court majority believes. I think that is woefully insufficient. You can abuse the powers of the President all you like, and the worst thing that can happen to you is you don’t get to be President anymore. If that’s the case, on the last day of their term, a President can simply say “selling pardons, $1M each”. The president will walk away rich, those pardons can’t be overturned by a future president, and Congress wouldn’t be able to impeach and remove them in enough time for it to matter.
There’s definitely nothing legally stopping the president from doing this. This was the Saturday Night Massacre.
The only thing that can stop this is public perception and the threat of impeachment then removal by the Senate.