> I just realized what bothers me about this whole mess...
>
> I don't care if Clinton had an affair. I don't see the Moral Outrage as
> being an important issue. What is important (legally) is if he tampered
> with a witness to lie about it. That would be criminal, etc.
>
> But if this is the case, and Clinton is guilty, what does this mean? He
> is guilty of tampering with the investigation of allegations. It
> totally ignores the original allegations or whether an original crime
> was committed.
>
> I would hate to see a President brought down as a result of his reaction
> to an investigation, and not due to guilt involving the original
> allegations that prompted the investigation.
The ONLY violation of law they ever established even to the
probable-cause level, that Nixon had actually done, was participating
in a cover-up. THAT is what brought Nixon down.
Clinton, if current reports bear up, is guilty of exactly the same
thing and possibly to a greater degree.
> This implies that a person
> can be investigated and eventually found guilty because of the
> investigation without any crime prior to the investigation being
> required. This vaguely reminds me of entrapment, whereby the person's
> reaction to the police investigation is deemed criminal, and the person
> is charged based on this and not based on any activity occurring prior
> to the investigation.
No, entrapment per se is somewhat different. What you are thinking
of is cases where all charges against a person are dropped except
"resisting arrest". That is now not acceptable in court: if there
isn't enough of a case to prosecute, then the arrest was not
justified.
Arresting someone directly interferes with their freedom.
Investigating them does not.
Entrapment is when (for example) an undercover police officer
instigates a crime so that other participants can be arrested. There
is not compelling reason to believe that, absent police
encouragement, a crime would have occurred.
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