A sitting president asking a law enforcement official to let an investigation go appears to be "unpresidented" -- well, something that's never happened before in an obstruction case before an American court. The court advised the grand jury that the president does not have the "slightest authority to control" its action in conducting an investigation. Because the grand jury is part of the judicial branch, and the president doesn't have direct authority over this branch. In contrast, prosecutors and investigators, like the FBI, are part of the executive branch and serve under the president. In the unintentionally prescient words of the 19th century Miller court, the president has "no more right to control [the judicial branch] than the czar of Russia."

Source: CNN June 11, 2017 17:37 UTC