President Obama was interviewed by 60 Minutes‘ Steve Kroft last night. Kroft mentioned a new poll showing that 42% of Americans believe Obama’s policies most favor Wall Street rather than average Americans (only 35% believe the opposite). Kroft speculated that this was due in part to the fact that, as he put it, “there’s not been any criminal prosecutions of people on Wall Street,” and then asked Obama whether he was “disappointed” with that development. Obama replied:
I can’t, as President of the United States, comment on the decisions about particular prosecutions. That’s the job of the Justice Department, and we keep those separate so that there’s no political influence on decisions made by professional prosecutors.
[...]
[The] Obama White House worked to block plans by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a Congressional investigation into [Bush administration war] crimes, and also had its State Department pressure Spain to impede its own judiciary's investigation into the torture regime.
[...]
Beyond that, the White House applied constant, intense political pressure on the Attorney General not to proceed with plans to try the 9/11 defendants in a civilian court. In April of this year, President Obama, while charges were pending, publicly decreed Bradley Manning guilty even though it is his direct military subordinates who will be judging Manning’s case, possibly jeopardizing that prosecution on the ground of undue command influence. And it was recently revealed that Obama officials are pressuring the New York State Attorney General to sign onto a full-scale settlement agreement with banks rather than continue to investigate Wall Street’s mortgage fraud.
Glenn Greenwald
Yeah, no comment, no personal influence.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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