prosecution staff and the attorney general and the deputy attorney general and the president has ordered the fbi to seal off those offices. as tipping points go, the saturday night massacre was a biggie setting in motion a series of events that tald take down the nixon presidency. it occurred on october 20, 1973 but less than a month before that date something else happened that didn t get saturday night massacre level attention but it was arguably just as important. on september 24, 1973, the office of legal counsel, the olc, part of the department of justice issued a memo that concluded criminal proceed against against a president in office should not go beyond a point where they could result in so serious a physical interference with the president s performance of his official duties that it would
happened that didn t get saturday night massacre level attention but it was arguably just as important. on september 24, 1973, the office of legal counsel, the olc, part of the department of justice issued a memo that concluded, criminal proceedings against a president in office should not go beyond a point where they could result in so serious a physical interference with the president s performance of his official duties that it would amount to incapacitation. in plain english, please do not indict a sitting president. that was the opinion of the department of justice in 1973. 2 years later in the year 2000, the same legal counsel doubled down on that opinion. quote, the indictment of criminal prosecution of a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch
that s for ty cobb, not me. and ty cobb says well, we won t interfere with the special counsel s comments. but often you get off-the-record behind-the-scenes spin from the white house and that hasn t happened in the last 12 hours or so since the story broke. this there have not been efforts to knock this down, to deny this happened, that the president made these requests. now they fall back often on the president just says things. even earlier this week when reportedly asked andrew mccabe who did you vote for the speculation has been well, he likes to joke. we re not seeing them lean into the defense on this issue. i agree, but this is bigger than that. this is a joke. you have a report on the front page of the times at a saturday night massacre level event that was prevented only because someone would not follow through on your order, of course you would deny that. of course anyone who had any reason to be able to say that wasn t true would deny it.