Conway

Conway

(Associated Press)

President-elect Donald Trump's campaign manager indicated the new administration may make good on a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to probe Hillary Clinton.

Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday told MSNBC Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence first want to "unify the country" but could still later act on the threat "in due time," Reuters reports.

"We haven't discussed that in recent days," Conway said, regarding the possibility.

The topic did not come up when Clinton called Trump to concede the race early Wednesday morning. The billionaire, real-estate developer and former reality television star begins his four-year term in office on Jan. 20.



A heated exchange in an Oct. 10 debate between the pair saw Trump tell Clinton "you'd be in jail" if he became president.



"If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there have never been so many lies, so much deception," Trump said at the debate.



Vice president-elect Mike Pence took up the issue and made similar promises at campaign events.



At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and at many events before and after, "lock her up" proved a popular rallying cry among Trump supporters.



Before Trump strode onstage to deliver his victory speech at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday, the crowd "had been reprising a signature chant of the campaign targeting the Democratic nominee, 'Lock her up!'" reported The Washington Post.



Trump struck a different tone in the speech.



"Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country," Trump said. "I mean that very seriously. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division . . . I say it is time for us to come together as one united people."



After investigating Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State under Obama from 2009 to 2013, the F.B.I. criticized Clinton but refused to bring charges.



"Although there is evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," F.B.I. Director James Comey said.



The Post said Trump could "easily" begin the process by having his attorney general appoint the prosecutor, but President Obama just as easily could "short-circuit the affair entirely" by pardoning Clinton before leaving office, as Gerald R. Ford did for Richard M. Nixon in 1974. Obama could do this even if Clinton hadn't yet been formally charged with any crime.



