Donald Trump on Sunday night threatened to appoint a "special prosecutor" to investigate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while Secretary of State.  When Clinton responded that it is a good thing Trump is not in charge of the country's laws, Trump fired back that "you'd be in jail." The exchange took place during the second presidential debate in St. Louis.

Trump Would Jail Clinton? There's a Name for That  -  Donald Trump’s threat in Sunday night’s presidential debate to appoint a special prosecutor to go after Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server is legally empty -- but it’s genuinely dangerous nevertheless. Federal regulations give the appointment power to the attorney general, not the president, precisely to protect us against a president who uses the special prosecutor as a political tool.

What separates functioning democracies from weak or failed ones is that political parties alternate in power without jailing the opponents they beat in elections. That sometimes means giving a pass to potentially criminal conduct, but that’s a worthwhile sacrifice for making republican government work.