REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Hillary’s Victories Mean Painful Legal Choices for DOJ, WH
by Charles Lipson
February 29, 2016

Few jobs are as demanding as the U.S. attorney general’s. The AG’s popularity peaks at the swearing-in ceremony and goes downhill from there. It’s not just the hard cases on the docket. It’s that attorneys general have two mandates that sometimes conflict. Do they follow their responsibilities as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, wherever those responsibilities lead? Or do they act as the president’s top appointee in law enforcement and do his bidding? AGs do not keep their jobs unless they know which mandate takes priority. They serve at the president’s pleasure. This bedrock choice between blind justice and political calculation is almost certain to confront Loretta Lynch once the FBI concludes its investigation into Hillary Clinton, her top aides, and the Clinton Foundation. READ MORE