Latest in Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The story is telling about how Mueller views the Justice Department policies that govern his powers.
Probably not.
Historically, no.
The president is subject to investigation and, if the evidence supports it, indictment.
Our current moment has brought into sharp relief longstanding questions about the role of law in presidential decision-making.