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Why should the AG work for the president at all? Why should what we refer to as the "policy preferences" of any president have any influence on deciding who in this country is investigated and prosecuted for crimes? Shouldn't such choices be based strictly on who seems to have violated the law of the land, not which laws the sitting president would prefer to enforce or leave unenforced, or worse, against whom he would prefer to enforce the Law, and from whom he would prefer the Law to look the other way?
Every other jurisdiction that I have ever lived in, apart from the federal jurisdiction, does not give the local executive any control over the local DA. Many do not give the local executive any control, or sharply limit control or even influence, over the local police agencies. They do this for a reason, a reason that applies in spades at the federal level. Direction from the executive has no useful role in law enforcement, there is no public policy reason to have it, and it has the huge potental downside of the executive misusing it to prosecute his enemies or to persecute hated minorities in order to gain votes from majority racists and homophobes.
The current situation, in which the outgoing administration has clearly committed crimes, and the only real question is the extent of official criminality, makes the need for total independence of federal law enforcement unusually acute. The new administration, because we have foolishly arranged things so that the police and prosecutors work for the president, will have to decide whether to let much official criminality go uninvestigated and unprosecuted, or go ahead with such. If it goes ahead, no matter how scrupulously fair the president directs DoJ to be in prosecuting BushCo, the other side will never admit that such prosecutions are anything but a partisan witch hunt, to be revenged in spades the next time they control the police and prosecutors.
Stop this cycle before it starts. Take control of federal law enforcement away from the president. Split even this independent power so that one official does not control both police and prosecutors. What's good enough for my state and county is plenty good enough for the US, and a lot safer.
