A Constitutional Crisis Is Underway

Jonathan Chait: “For most of Donald Trump’s presidency, the specter of a coming constitutional crisis has loomed over the Russia investigation. The newly leaked memo by Trump’s lawyers… suggests that such a crisis is not merely a likelihood, but that it has already begun.”

“The memo proposes several tendentious interpretations of the publicly available facts of Trump’s behavior, along with some legally questionable and amateurish citations of precedent. But the most important passage is its sweeping assertion of presidential authority.”

“The implications of this authority are breathtaking. Trump, in their view, has unlimited control to open or close any federal investigation.”