No, Trump didn't 'promise' to prosecute Hillary if he's elected

If you've been reading the political blogs this morning, you've probably seen some variation of this headline: "Trump promises to prosecute Hillary if elected." The reports all stem from an interview he did with Sean Hannity; in which he was asked - somewhat obliquely - about prosecuting Clinton over her email scandal.

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Any site that tells you he announced, promised, vowed, or uncategorically stated that he would bring charges is simply not telling the truth. Here's what he said:

"You have no choice. In fairness, you have to look into that. She seems to be guilty. But you know what, I wouldn't even say that. But certainly, it has to be looked at. If a Republican wins, if I'm winning, certainly you will look at that as being fair to anyone else. So unfair to the people that have been prosecuted over the years for doing much less than she did. So she's being protected, but if I win, certainly it's something we're going to look at. If I'm the nominee, this is not gonna be a subject that's gonna die down very easily."

If you parse that, what he really said was something along the lines of: "It looks like she should be prosecuted, and we'll look into if I win. In the meantime, it will be a big campaign issue." He's absolutely right that people have been prosecuted for far less, and given what we already know it's hard to see how she's anything but guilty. Trump clearly wants to imply that he'd appoint an Attorney General who would be ameanable to a prosecution, but he's a politician. If you really listen, he leaves himself an awful lot of wiggle room. Around here, the boss likes to say that you have to "ignore the noise" during campaign season. If you're reading a piece that says Trump made a promise, you're reading "the noise."