"President Trump did not need to send a memo or telephone his attorney general to make his desires known. He broadcast them for all the world to see on Twitter."

"The instruction was clear: The Justice Department should investigate his defeated opponent from last year’s campaign. However they were delivered, Mr. Trump’s demands have ricocheted through the halls of the Justice Department, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions has now ordered career prosecutors to evaluate various accusations against Hillary Clinton and report back on whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate her. Mr. Sessions has made no decision, and in soliciting the assessment of department lawyers, he may be seeking a way out of the bind his boss has put him in by effectively putting the matter in the hands of professionals who were not politically appointed. But if he or his deputy authorizes a new investigation of Mrs. Clinton, it would shatter norms established after Watergate that are intended to prevent presidents from using law enforcement agencies against political rivals....."

So begins the NYT report "Trump Shatters Longstanding Norms by Pressing for Clinton Investigation."

I tend to think that if Trump really wanted his erstwhile opponent investigated he would have refrained from sounding so clear. His speaking openly about it makes it more difficult to have an actual investigation. The kind of preemptive criticism that you see in this NYT article is exactly what you could expect and Trump must know that.

So I'm going to assume Trump doesn't want the investigation. His tweets and other statements about "crooked Hillary" and his inability to control the Justice Department are not a means to an end but the end in itself. It's very efficient. The Justice Department will demonstrate its independence, and the critics will be left screaming at the sky.