MrMike
Bless you all
Poor Liberals...you need to go find something else to be fauxtraged about!
DOJ defends Trump’s acting A.G. appointment in memo
The 20-page DOJ memo leans heavily on historical precedent to argue that Trump was well within his constitutional and legal bounds.
A new Justice Department analysis released Wednesday backs up President Donald Trump’s appointment last week of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker despite a growing political and legal backlash.
The 20-page DOJ memo — addressed to top White House attorney Emmet Flood — leans heavily on historical precedent to argue that Trump was well within his constitutional and legal bounds to elevate Whitaker over other senior Justice officials as the temporary replacement for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor who was working as Sessions’ chief of staff before getting the promotion to become the nation’s top law enforcement official, has already drawn lawsuits and congressional scrutiny over his conflicts of interest and because he hasn’t been confirmed for any current Justice position.
But Steven Engel, the head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, argued in the new memo that the Justice Department has previously leaned on the same law Trump used — the Vacancies Reform Act — to depart from its own succession plans.
In addition, Engel pushed back against suggestions Trump violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by noting that someone who performs the duties in a temporary capacity doesn’t have to go through the Senate confirmation process.
“As all three branches of government have long recognized, the President may designate an acting official to perform the duties of a vacant principal office, including a Cabinet office, even when the acting official has not been confirmed by the Senate,” wrote Engel.
Drawing on U.S. history, Engel explained that presidents have had the legal right to put non-Senate confirmed officials into government positions going as far back as 1792. That includes more than 160 appointments before 1860 for positions that included secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Navy and Interior.
DOJ also found an example from 1866 when a non-Senate confirmed assistant attorney general took over as acting attorney general.
“Mr. Whitaker’s designation is no more constitutionally problematic than countless similar presidential orders dating back over 200 years,” Engel wrote.
While much of the Justice Department memo is devoted to the long history of similar appointments, the Supreme Court has sometimes scoffed at such arguments when the justices conclude that such practices fly in the face of the Constitution.
In 2012, the Justice Department issued a similar legal opinion justifying three of President Barack Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. And in 2014, the justices unanimously ruled those appointments unconstitutional. However, they appeared divided on how much deference to give to tradition in such disputes.
Complaints about Whitaker have only grown since Trump last week tapped Whitaker the day after the November mid-term elections where Democrats won control of the House. Already, the state of Maryland has filed a motion Tuesday in federal court seeking to overturn the Whitaker appointment. Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has said Whitaker would be his first witness when Democrats take control of the lower chamber in January.
In promoting Whitaker, Trump has also sparked an uproar because of his past criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation examining any potential conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Whitaker in his new role has taken over supervising duties of Mueller’s work from Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who was in charge of the special counsel because Sessions had previously recused himself from the topic.
DOJ initially said Whitaker had no plans to back away from overseeing Mueller, but on Monday it signaled the acting attorney general was consulting with senior DOJ ethics officials and reopened the possibility he could recuse himself.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/legal-opinion-backs-whitakers-acting-ag-989878
DOJ defends Trump’s acting A.G. appointment in memo
The 20-page DOJ memo leans heavily on historical precedent to argue that Trump was well within his constitutional and legal bounds.
A new Justice Department analysis released Wednesday backs up President Donald Trump’s appointment last week of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker despite a growing political and legal backlash.
The 20-page DOJ memo — addressed to top White House attorney Emmet Flood — leans heavily on historical precedent to argue that Trump was well within his constitutional and legal bounds to elevate Whitaker over other senior Justice officials as the temporary replacement for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor who was working as Sessions’ chief of staff before getting the promotion to become the nation’s top law enforcement official, has already drawn lawsuits and congressional scrutiny over his conflicts of interest and because he hasn’t been confirmed for any current Justice position.
But Steven Engel, the head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, argued in the new memo that the Justice Department has previously leaned on the same law Trump used — the Vacancies Reform Act — to depart from its own succession plans.
In addition, Engel pushed back against suggestions Trump violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by noting that someone who performs the duties in a temporary capacity doesn’t have to go through the Senate confirmation process.
“As all three branches of government have long recognized, the President may designate an acting official to perform the duties of a vacant principal office, including a Cabinet office, even when the acting official has not been confirmed by the Senate,” wrote Engel.
Drawing on U.S. history, Engel explained that presidents have had the legal right to put non-Senate confirmed officials into government positions going as far back as 1792. That includes more than 160 appointments before 1860 for positions that included secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Navy and Interior.
DOJ also found an example from 1866 when a non-Senate confirmed assistant attorney general took over as acting attorney general.
“Mr. Whitaker’s designation is no more constitutionally problematic than countless similar presidential orders dating back over 200 years,” Engel wrote.
While much of the Justice Department memo is devoted to the long history of similar appointments, the Supreme Court has sometimes scoffed at such arguments when the justices conclude that such practices fly in the face of the Constitution.
In 2012, the Justice Department issued a similar legal opinion justifying three of President Barack Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. And in 2014, the justices unanimously ruled those appointments unconstitutional. However, they appeared divided on how much deference to give to tradition in such disputes.
Complaints about Whitaker have only grown since Trump last week tapped Whitaker the day after the November mid-term elections where Democrats won control of the House. Already, the state of Maryland has filed a motion Tuesday in federal court seeking to overturn the Whitaker appointment. Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has said Whitaker would be his first witness when Democrats take control of the lower chamber in January.
In promoting Whitaker, Trump has also sparked an uproar because of his past criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation examining any potential conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Whitaker in his new role has taken over supervising duties of Mueller’s work from Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who was in charge of the special counsel because Sessions had previously recused himself from the topic.
DOJ initially said Whitaker had no plans to back away from overseeing Mueller, but on Monday it signaled the acting attorney general was consulting with senior DOJ ethics officials and reopened the possibility he could recuse himself.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/legal-opinion-backs-whitakers-acting-ag-989878
