Tag: Norman L. Eisen

President Trump has nominated William P. Barr, who served as attorney general during the first Bush administration from 1991 to 1993, to lead the Justice Department. But Mr. Trump, according to several senior administration officials and people close to him, has so far been unable to bring himself to personally fire a retired four-star military general. The choice of Mr. Barr was well received by Republicans as soon as s it became known that he had emerged as permanent replacement for Mr. “Although an investigation shouldn’t be launched just because a president wants it, the ultimate question is whether the matter warrants investigation.” Mr. Barr added then that he saw more basis for investigating the uranium deal than any supposed conspiracy between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. President Trump said he would nominate William P. Barr as attorney general. “I will demand that Mr. Barr make a firm and specific commitment to protect the Mueller investigation, operate independently of the White House, and uphold the rule of law,” Mr. Blumental said in a statement. In 1989, President George Bush appointed him to lead the Justice Department’s powerful Office of Legal Counsel, and later elevated him to deputy attorney general and then attorney general. “The attorney general’s oath to uphold the Constitution raises the question whether his duty lies ultimately with the president who appointed him or more abstractly with the rule of law. I said in my confirmation hearings, and have said several times since, that the attorney general’s ultimate allegiance must be to the rule of law.” John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave the White House in the next few days. The prosecutor took three years to finish that investigation, ultimately concluding that no crime had been committed and that he should not have been appointed.

Trump’s US supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is certainly competent at dodging difficult questions. In his confirmation hearing in Congress this week, he was asked for his opinion on Roe v Wade, the supreme court case that legalized abortion nationwide. It has been reaffirmed many times”. And it means that Kavanaugh’s confirmation – any confirmation to the supreme court – must be put on hold. The president is under criminal investigation. Do we really think that same president should be picking a judge who may ultimately decide, for example, whether the president can pardon himself? The three men who wrote the Brookings paper “have either been before the Senate for confirmation, worked on supreme court or other confirmations, or both”. According to Senator Patrick Leahy, 99% of Kagan’s documents from her time in the White House were made available to the senate judiciary committee. If Kavanaugh and his Republican champions believe he is a qualified justice, then they should act like it and give the Senate proper time to vet him. Is Brett Kavanaugh the problem, or the US supreme court itself?