This archive report was first published on 21 December 2019.
On September 26, 2019, a whistleblower complaint from someone in the C.I.A. was leaked, setting the stage for the impeachment inquiry. The complaint detailed a conversation between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, in which Trump appeared to pressure Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son.
The complaint led to a congressional investigation that ultimately resulted in impeachment proceedings. This marked a stark contrast to the Watergate scandal, where President Nixon faced intense scrutiny from the F.B.I. and Congress.
Justice Department ¶
Perilous for Nixon, Protective for Trump ¶
During the Watergate investigation, Nixon faced a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who was appointed by Attorney General Elliot Richardson in May 1973. Cox issued a subpoena for the White House tapes in October 1973, prompting Nixon to order Richardson to fire him. Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, refused and resigned, leading to the Saturday Night Massacre.
Nixon's actions sparked public outrage, leading to the appointment of a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. Jaworski continued Cox's efforts to obtain the tapes, ultimately leading to a Supreme Court ruling that Nixon must turn over the tapes.
Fast forward to the present, and the Justice Department has taken a vastly different approach. In March 2019, Attorney General William P. Barr announced that he had concluded that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had found insufficient evidence that Trump obstructed justice. Trump declared himself 'exonerated,' despite Barr's note that the report had not exonerated him.
Barr waited over three weeks to release the report, allowing Trump and his allies to mount a counteroffensive. Democrats chose not to include any of the conduct revealed in the report in the articles of impeachment.
The Justice Department has also declined to open a criminal investigation or appoint a special prosecutor in response to the whistleblower complaint. Furthermore, department lawyers have argued that Congress cannot enforce subpoenas calling administration officials to testify.
Finally, by opening a criminal inquiry into the origins of the F.B.I.'s investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016, Barr has given credence to Trump's unfounded theory that people in American intelligence agencies worked against him.
