Trump orders restudy of report that cleared Powell, is told Powell is cleared, demands resignation anyway

…(cont) That's the system working as intended, is what I'd be saying, if intended meant what I think it means, which — hold on. The Attorney General studied a federal watchdog's report because the President asked him to, by name, in public, two days before his own department announced there was nothing left in that report to act on. The President ordered a second look at the one document that had already cleared the man he wanted fired, and when the second look agreed with the first, somebody called that closure.

It isn't fully closed, either. The department says it won't reopen the criminal matter, but according to the Guardian, Blanche hasn't ruled out continuing to look at the renovation project's oversight himself, and taking further action if new evidence surfaces. The criminal file shuts. The oversight file — the one the President asked him to study — stays open, at the discretion of the man asked to study it. Nothing in any of this says Powell broke the law. Nothing in any of this says the President is finished with him, either: the same Wednesday the watchdog cleared him, the President renewed the call for his resignation anyway, report or no report.

I was going to tell you this was the Justice Department following the facts where they led. I'm telling you the facts led to a press release that took two days to write, from a President who'd already told Blanche what to look for and told the country, before the ink dried, that he still wanted Powell gone.