Trump won’t pursue e-mail case against Clinton David M Jackson, USA TODAY

Trump also denounced the publication, saying the New York Times “continues to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone”.

“President-elect Trump should focus on healing the broken justice system, affirm the rule of law and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton scandals”, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. Speaking to the New York Times on Tuesday, the President-elect said he has no intention of hurting the Clintons.

And why would Trump, a 70-year-old tycoon and reality television star whose defiance of political norms led him to win the world’s highest office in his first foray into an election, change now?

But she said anything Mr Trump can do to help her heal, “then perhaps that’s a good thing to do”.

But Conway said Trump now sees things differently.

“The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as the last line of defense, and I think we must do all that we can to ensure that we have a Reasonable Republican candidate who shares our American values”, he said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations conducted an exit poll on 2,000 Muslim voters, which showed that 13% of the Muslim voters were supportive of Trump, while Clinton had 74% of the votes. In contrast, Hillary Clinton tended to perform about the same as, or better than, her polling averages in most states.

During the campaign, Trump threatened Clinton repeatedly with further investigation of her use of a private e-mail server as well as the fundraising practices of the Clinton Foundation.

Trump was also asked by the Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet whether he felt he had done things to energize the alt right.

As far back as 2012 he had tweeted: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make United States manufacturing non-competitive”. “His job is pick those guys, not do their jobs”.

But the issue has enraged Republicans and has been cited as a factor in Clinton’s defeat to Trump at during the 2016 presidential election.

Beyond all this, a focus on Florida, Wisconsin, and other close states distracts you from noticing that Trump performed particularly well, both compared to Mitt Romney in 2012 and to the 2016 polls, in numerous most Republican states in the nation (North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming). “The only thing he could reach for and from afar was ‘if I’m president I will prosecute you.'” said Mercer. “On the one hand not looking like a banana republic, throwing our opponents in jail”.

Of course, the news that Trump would be largely moving away from a promise to go fully Javert on Clinton if elected was not received well in some circles ― most notably his allies at Breitbart News, who signaled a sense of betrayal to their readers as news of this decision broke.

Regardless of Trump’s decision, she could still face scrutiny from Republican-controlled committees in the House and Senate, as well as a Federal Election Commission investigation of her presidential campaign.

During the campaign Trump triggered consternation – and widespread condemnation – when he said Clinton would be in jail if he won the White House.

The remarks come after months of Trump calling Clinton “Crooked Hillary”, questioning whether the Clinton Foundation is a pay-for-play scheme and raging against the Justice Department for refusing to prosecute her for blending private and official business on her email server. It’s beef: his backing off Ms Clinton and her server. Nevertheless, Trump said he would want to avoid the appearance of a conflict, and may instead make Kushner a special envoy to broker peace in the Middle East.

He continued: “I’d rather do the popular vote”.