Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)

Latest in Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)

Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)

OLC Issues an Opinion About the "Urgent Concern" Determination on the Whistleblower Complaint by the DNI

Jacob Schulz Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 11:41 AM

The Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion detailing the legal rationale for their determination that "the complaint submitted to the ICIG does not involve an 'urgent concern'" and that the DNI thus has no statutory obligation to give the complaint to the congressional intelligence committees. The memo can be found here.

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Documents

OLC Opinion on Treasury's Refusal to Provide Trump Tax Returns

Mikhaila Fogel Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 4:55 PM

The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has released an opinion supporting the Treasury Department's refusal to comply with a congressional request for President Trump's tax returns. The OLC opinion can be read here and below.

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Documents

OLC Releases Opinion on Executive Branch Counsel for Officials Subject to Congressional Subpoena

Hadley Baker Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:33 PM

The Justice Department disclosed an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) stating that it is unconstitutional for Congress to prohibit executive branch lawyers from accompanying witnesses who are current and former executive branch employees called to testify.

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Executive Power

The National Emergency and the President’s Lawyers

Bob Bauer Sat, Feb 16, 2019, 1:27 PM

President Trump seems to have relied on the White House counsel’s office for advice on declaring a national emergency—but then disregarded the office’s repeatedly expressed doubts about the legal basis for the declaration.

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Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)

"Form and Legality": The Office of Legal Counsel’s Role in the National Emergency Declaration

Annika Lichtenbaum Fri, Feb 15, 2019, 4:37 PM

When the president issues an executive order or a proclamation, federal regulations require the attorney general to review the resulting document, and the attorney general has delegated this authority to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

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Document

Document: OLC Opinion on Airstrikes Against the Islamic State

Mikhaila Fogel Wed, Nov 7, 2018, 7:36 PM

The Department of Justice has released a 2014 Office of Legal Counsel opinion approving airstrikes against the Islamic State under the president's Article II authority as commander-in-chief. The memo is available below.

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Federal Law Enforcement

Indicting a President Is Not Foreclosed: The Complex History

Walter Dellinger Mon, Jun 18, 2018, 7:00 AM

A review of the half-dozen times that the executive branch has addressed the question of whether a president can be prosecuted, indicted or included as an unindicted co-conspirator.

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War Powers

The New OLC Opinion on Syria Brings Obama Legal Rationales Out of the Shadows

Jack Goldsmith Fri, Jun 1, 2018, 3:02 PM

The opinion on the April 2018 airstrikes against Syrian chemical-weapons facilities follows straightforwardly from Obama-era legal opinions, including one we did not know about until today.