Breaking Norms

State Dept. under @SecPompeo intensifies investigation of employees who worked under Hillary Clinton for routine emails. Most were political appointees. Pompeo is a Republican politician who attacked Clinton over Benghazi. w/ @maggieNYT. Confirms WP story. https://t.co/bmpjunj1WQ

— Edward Wong (@ewong) September 30, 2019

This raises a question:  is it appropriate to investigate and prosecute criminal acts of a former President by the subsequent Administration?

The usual argument has been:  that way lies banana republics, where every new election brings chances for recrimination and retribution the likes of which would make the Gingrich impeachment of Bill Clinton look like regular Parliamentary order.

On the other hand:  what is this State Department investigation but a true "witch hunt" (ironic, no?) where communications are being retroactively classified and acts long deemed acceptable are to now be treated as criminal and if we can't punish the former Secretary of State, we can certainly punish the government employees whose only crime is to still be government employees when the new POTUS took over.

It's going to take more than indicting Trump in 2021 to put a stop to this.  I don't have a silver bullet for it, but it cannot be allowed to continue now, nor to become a common practice in the future.

I'm a bit more worried about this than a poor jab at satire by a Congressional committee chair.