DC: The Department of Justice issued an advisory opinion confirming the legality of Matthew Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general Wednesday, as legal authorities across the ideological spectrum suggested the move violated a federal statute and the Constitution.
The memo, prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), reveals that the Justice Department previously counseled President Donald Trump on the matter and defends the president’s right to designate temporary office holders under the 1998 Vacancies Reform Act (VRA) and as a matter of history. OLC advises the AG and the president on a wide range of legal issues. Its conclusions are considered binding within the executive branch.
“This office has previously advised that the president could designate a senior Department of Justice official, such as Mr. Whitaker, as acting Attorney General, and this memorandum explains the basis for that conclusion,” the opinion reads.
Though the Constitution requires the Senate to confirm all “principal officers,” the Justice Department contends that Congress has always understood the appointments clause does not reach individuals temporarily filling principal offices.
In addition to explaining presidential prerogative to fill vacancies under the VRA, OLC conducted a survey of historic appointments practice and identified some 160 occasions between 1809 and 1860 in which non-Senate confirmed officials filled high offices on a temporary basis, including one instance in 1866 in which a senior DOJ official briefly served as acting attorney general, and other instances from the 19th century in which assistant attorneys general not confirmed by the Senate authorized Justice Department action as acting AGs.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1898 Eaton decision also confirms Trump’s authority to install Whitaker, the opinion argues. MORE HERE
Good news! Now that it’s confirmed he can be there let’s see if we have someone at DOJ that will finally put the Hammer down.
President Trump could just as easily FIRE Rosenstein on down until Whitaker IS the top official at DOJ. Suck it, dems.
They will never learn, President Trump don’t do shit without knowing first.
The crazy one is CNN thinks they get to dictate who has access to the White House.
“What a bunch of maroons.” – Bugs
Check mate. Thanks for playing.
The cry baby Democraps are still tender and sore from having their butt stomped and will never give up fighting against President Trump. Anyone, without a D behind his name is their target. Nothing he does will change their deranged zombie attacks until they are back in power. They will have some judge/lame-o say that the DOJ has it wrong.
Of course it’s legal. The left doesn’t care. They just want to cause as much grief for Trump as they can.
I’m so suspicious of anything from the corrupt justice department, even this raises the, is-this-another-deep-state-ploy. I read somewhere that recusal might be in Whittaker’s thinking.
Someone out of the swamp needs to be gotten. Jeanine Pirro.
They’re already looking for the women Whitaker raped.