Haven’t seen this analysis posted so I’m providing it. It’s a useful reminder to those of us who are more than TIRED of WAITING.
There will be NO ARRESTS before the ELECTION (11/6/2018), at least from Jeff Sessions/DOJ. There CANNOT BE ARRESTS, prosecutions, or unsealed indictments right before the ELECTION by DOJ or its constituent parts.
The Hatch Act (5 U.S.C. §§ 7321-26) would prohibit the timing of arrests to affect an election.
Specifically, 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1) holds that “[A]n employee may not use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”
There would be no doubt that, say, arresting Crooked Hillary this week or next week would be the use of official authority to affect the result of an election. There is no way Sessions would even risk creating the appearance of impropriety, let alone commit an outright violation of the Hatch Act.
The BIG DAY, to the extent there will be one, is further off than we (or at least I) would want.
What will probably (continue to) happen is that information will (continue to) drip out through CONGRESS, which can leak non-public information to affect the election, provided that the leak is itself not unlawful. For example, how was it learned that Crooked Hillary’s security clearance was yanked? Grassley.
For those of us who aren’t sure how much longer we can wait, buckle up for the long haul (a week seems like an eternity to me, knowing what I know).
IMPORTANT CAVEAT: Pursuant to 5 U.S. Code § 7322(1), none of this analysis applies to the following: (1) POTUS; (2) VPOTUS; and (3) “a member of the uniformed services.” That means that POTUS is free to DECLAS whenever he wants, and to the extent there are or will be military tribunals, they can happen whenever without abridging the Hatch Act.
Sauce:
// https://www.justice.gov/jmd/government-ethics-outline
// https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/7323