Fifty years ago, President Richard Nixon popped up on national television on a Thursday night to proudly announce that he invaded Cambodia. At that time, Nixon was selling himself as a peacemaker, promising to withdraw U.S. troops from the Vietnam War. But after the sixth time that Nixon watched the movie “Patton,” he was overwhelmed by martial fervor and could not resist sending U.S. troops crashing into another nation. Presidents had announced military action prior to Nixon’s Cambodia surprise but there was a surreal element to Nixon’s declaration that helped launch a new era of...
Office of Legal Counsel
Attorney General William Barr’s Summary of the Mueller Report
Via: the New York Times: The Attorney General Washington, D.C. March 24, 2019 Dear Chairman Graham, Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Feinstein, and Ranking Member Collins: As a supplement to the notification provided on Friday, March 22, 2019, I am writing today to advise you of the principal conclusions reached by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III and to inform you about the status of my initial review of the report he has prepared. The Special Counsel's Report On Friday, the Special Counsel submitted to me a "confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions” he...
William Barr: Enemy of the Constitution?
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding the second day of hearings on President Trumps nomination of William Barr as Attorney General. Barr previously served as Attorney General for President George H. W.Bush from 1991-1993. Barr has a long history of opposing gun rights and yesterday promised California Senator Diane Feinstein he would enthusiastically support efforts to take away gun rights without due process. During Barr’s tenure he showed himself to be an opponent of civil liberties and a supporter of unlimited executive power. Barr worked with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to...
William C. Bradford and the “Law” of Negan’s Bat
President-elect Donald Trump has thousands of executive branch positions to fill, including the spot in the Office of Legal Counsel once occupied by the detestable war criminal John C. Yoo. William C. Bradford, an obscure, disgraced ex-West Point instructor and unabashed advocate of genocide and military rule, might assume Yoo's station as chief legal apologist for presidential war crimes. The OLC’s stated function is to advise the president regarding the constraints imposed upon his powers by the Constitution and laws made pursuant to it. Yoo specialized in devising intricate rationales...
11/2/16 Liza Goitein on the new era of secret law
Liza Goitein, Co-Director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, discusses her report on “The New Era of Secret Law” in the US, including the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel’s secret interpretations of existing laws against torture and the FISA Court’s secret authorization of NSA bulk collection of phone records.