Fmr Federal Ethics Boss: Justice Department Ought To Come Clean on 'Secret Laws'
OLC decisions could be guiding the insurrection cases, Schaub says
A key office within the federal Justice Department tasked with providing legal advice to the president and other top federal officials has “volumes of secret opinions,” which can have the force of law, so DOJ has an obligation to open those up to the American people.
That's the position of Walter Schaub, who headed the US Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, who posted multiple tweets on the matter Tuesday.
At issue, according to Schaub, is the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which is tasked to provide a variety of legal opinions.
Those legal opinions can have the force of law, Schaub explained.
OLC is perhaps best known for drafting — and reaffirming — the policy that criminal indictments cannot be brought against incumbent presidents.
“DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel has VOLUMES of secret opinions that it has never released. If those secret opinions bar DOJ prosecutors from prosecuting senior officials, those secret opinions have the effect of secret laws. That would put government officials above the law,” Schaub tweeted.
Schaub, particularly, raised the question that these secret OLC opinions could be guiding the moves that the Justice Department is taking in relation to investigating former president Donald Trump and his associates in connection with the attempt to block the lawful and legitimate certification of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.
“How can we know that secret OLC opinions are not the basis for DOJ's decision not to prosecute Mark Meadows or Dan Scavino? DOJ owes Congress and the American people an explanation. We deserve to know if DOJ is even investigating top Trump administration officials,” Schaub wrote.
Trump-era officials Meadows and Scavino have refused to cooperate with a lawful subpoena from the House select committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
Schaub went all the way back, historically, to President Richard Nixon, who famously said, “When a president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Nixon would become the only person ever to resign the American presidency due to his role in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in.
“Remember when Nixon said ‘When a president does it, that means that it is not illegal'? How can anyone know whether OLC says the same thing behind closed doors? We can't. DOJ owes America more transparency. Citizens do not owe Merrick Garland blind trust,” Schaub tweeted, referring to the current federal attorney general.
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