Quinta Jurecic discusses the constitutional crisis that the Trump administration could trigger.

The Justice Department now enters a second Trump administration with less authority to pursue a president than it has had in half a century.

Justice Juan M. Merchan gave Donald J. Trump a symbolic punishment. The judge said that leniency was due the office of the president, not the man who will soon hold the title.

The phone call centered on a former law clerk of Justice Alito’s. In the eyes of the Trump team, the clerk still needed to prove his loyalty to the president-elect.

President-elect Donald J. Trump is trying to expunge his conviction before he is inaugurated. He would be the first felon elected to the Oval Office.

A Manhattan judge has already indicated that he will spare Donald J. Trump from jail time, but the president-elect is seeking to avoid the symbolic blow of the criminal proceeding.