Can the POTUS order a special prosecutor to investigate and/or prosecute… well, anyone he wants? Say, for example, his opponent for the election, whom he has accused of various and sundry crimes. Or a journalist who has dug up dirt on him. Could he use his authority to prosecute and/or jail his enemies (or at least tie them up in legal proceedings for years)?
I assume so under the Take Care Clause. Another question I’ve asked on this board is because of the Take Care Clause does the President have the power of arrest?
Not directly but the Attorney General works for him.
But is there anything to prevent the President from doing it directly? So if let’s say a cabinet member needs arrestin’ and the President wants to do it themselves for whatever reason, can they do it then turn them over to the appropriate LEO?
There is nothing preventing the president from making a citizen’s arrest but he has no authority beyond that.
As for a special prosecutor, Nixon appointed the first one. Since then the rules have changed and the Attorney General appoints them under CFR Chapter 6. All the lawyerspeak is a little confusing but I don’t see where the president has the authority to direct appoint a special prosecutor.
It seems to me that the Attorney General’s power derives entirely from the President, and that the President therefore has the authority to personally do anything the AG usually does. Likewise for any of the federal law enforcement bodies (FBI, Secret Service, etc.). It would be unusual in the extreme, of course, but I can’t see any reason it would be illegal.
When it comes to special prosecutors the president is specifically left out since Nixon appointed his own special prosecutor to investigate himself.
I assume that the OP describes a fictional or hypothetical situation. I can’t imagine this happening IRL.
Bob
You need to fine tooth comb the powers enumerated in the Judge Dredd canon.
Vaguely apropos, but there’s at least one law still on the books–I’m guessing it’s a pretty old law–with the following language:
It’s definitely sort of an odd picture:
“Mr. President! Mr. President! General Benedict is plotting with the Ruritanian Ambassador to attack America!”
“Dammit! I’ll call the Attorney General; we’ll deputize some of the Cabinet secretaries as a posse, and we’ll go and apprehend that rapscallion! Thanks, citizen!”
I agree.
And then fired him, by ordering the Acting Attorney General to act on his behalf to do so.
Personal prosecution of the enemies by the ruler is one of the things the checks and balances of the US governmental system was explicitly set up to avoid. The Star Chamber run the by the British monarchy was one of the primary motivator behind the US constitution.
I don’t, to a degree. Whatever constitutional authority resides in the Attorney General devolves from the POTUS. However, Congress has, in its infinite wisdom, granted the Attorney General additional powers beyond those directly conferred on the executive by the Constitution. It’s the Attorney General who supervises US Attorneys - whose offices were created by the Judiciary Act, as well as the AG’s office itself - not the POTUS. And while the President has the discretion to fire an AG, the AG may nonetheless refuse to obey.
Congress could probably also amend the Judiciary Act to insulate the AG from firing without cause under Morrison v. Olson.
Didn’t someone insist that the president was the chief law enforcement officer of the country?
Somebody might have but as a law enforcement officer I have always heard that the US Attorney General was the chief law enforcement officer of the country.
I believe the Attorney General’s power comes from the US Constitution, not the president.
The Constitution doesn’t mention an attorney general. The authority of the office comes from the constitutional authority conferred on the president and from acts of Congress.
That doesn’t say that the President gets to put on his own shiny star. it just says that if you hear about a traitor treasoning some treachery, you’ve gotta tell El Prez or your governor or a judge about it.
In the military, in one important sense, everyone is a LEO to those under their command, no?
So he could have anyone in the military arrested by that power, but then JAG takes over (thank God).
He keeps arresting them, you get Nixon Saturday Night Massacre, and further hilarity.