Investigating American Presidents

Exploring the roots of the presidency and presidential power as outlined in the Constitution; the advantages and disadvantages a president has during an investigation; why presidential investigations are essential knowledge for any American citizen.

Presidential crises and abuses of power; early executive scandals and their significant long-term effects; how people are still dealing with the fallout of famous investigations; the controversies of Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding.

Legislative and judicial oversight of the presidency as a permanent part of the American government; limiting and restraining the possibility of executive abuse; how a system of checks and balances came to exist; the case of Marbury v. Madison.

The Watergate burglars and how the consequences of their arrest brought down President Richard Nixon; two important Supreme Court cases that shaped a president's power to dismiss personnel; the Independent Counsel Act.

Why Congress and the public were convinced that an independent investigator was essential; the swing from the Nixon era to the independent counsel of the Reagan and Clinton eras; the special counsel investigating Russian election hacking.

Convincing evidence of a president's criminality and its effect on the country's management; the legality of indicting a sitting president; pondering questions about whether or not a president is in a class of their own when it comes to indictments.