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The Unitary Executive and Comey’s Vindictive Prosecution Claim

Jack Goldsmith · 28 Aug 2026

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Jack Goldsmith did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    The president has the Article II power to direct a prosecution.

    Their wordsAnd with the norm rejected, as a matter of Article II power, it is right: the president can direct a prosecution.

  2. Our reading

    The unitary executive does not excuse executive branch actions that violate the First Amendment or equal protection and due process principles.

    Their wordsThe unitary executive justifies vertical presidential control within the executive branch. It does not excuse executive branch actions that (as Comey alleges) violate the First Amendment or equal protection and due process principles.

  3. Our reading

    Legal hurdles to inferring a prosecutor's vindictiveness from a president's vindictiveness should be lowered due to extreme claims of unitariness.

    Their wordsAny legal hurdle to inferring the vindictiveness of this charging prosecutor from the vindictiveness of this president should be lowered, if not eliminated, by the Trump administration's unprecedentedly extreme claims of unitariness.

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