Comey's opening statement is out.

[*michaelsean*]

(06-09-2017, 12:09 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: That would be one for constitutional scholars, but on the surface I believe they could. Pardons may be the purview of the POTUS, but pardons and grants of clemency are vetted by the DoJ and other administration officials for a reason. Obviously the POTUS could still decide to do so, but if it is something big that the person took part in and the IC and Congress are against it, then there could be an enormous backlash politically, and possible obstruction charges brought depending on timing.

There is no constitutional power that is limitless.

Let me ask this.  At what point would you consider the Director of the FBI to be obstructing justice?  It's hard to imagine where a person can stop an investigation, but his boss cannot.  We keep hearing of this distance between the executive branch and the justice department, but it's not a legal one.  It's one of practice over the last 40 years.  

And all of this still revolves around who will accept his statement about Flynn to be an order.  It sure doesn't sound like an order.  One could say it was  implied, but I don't think that would hold up in a real court.