Trump's Clinton Fixation Should Scare All Americans

During his presidency, Barack Obama was under considerable pressure to initiate prosecutions against officials in the George W. Bush administration. Even before taking office, Obama strongly signaled that he would not do this, suggesting that “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.” In 2009, he added, “At a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

As late as 2015, Human Rights Watch argued for “the opening of new investigations,” complaining that criminal prosecutions of Bush officials were obligatory under international law, above all for what it described as “torture” by the Central Intelligence Agency. It contended that without prosecutions of Bush-era officials, the legacy of the Obama administration would be “forever poisoned.”