Page 5 - Acting Position News Today

Constrain the mueller invest gairxs hes immediately called before congress to answer for why hes obstructing the investigation. any communications with the white house, on this investigation, are subject to discovery. if he starts to get into the fraud area where his own former company is being investigated, hes accused of obstruction. he literally must stay in his office at this point and hope to god that nothing worse comes out. so i -- this turns out to be the nominee or the acting position t...

Justice, the department of justice view as someone who would strip out the unpinnings of the mission of the department of justice, what happens, potentially to the department itself? >> i think what were seeing and have been seeing over the past two years, first of all s-a dis deep erosion of the department itself and a big concern of the rule of law and whether the department will remain an independent law enforcement agency that pays primary attention to the laws of the land. i think what happ...

Interpretation analysis but overlooked a couple things. it blurred the lines. they were looking to support a decision that had already been made. the really important fact i think here is regardless, again, of the legality because while thats important, i dont know that were going to have time to see this play out in the courts. >> what do you mean? >> his appointment is temporary. its 210 days. although, once they appoint a nominee, my understanding is he can stay acting during that time. thing...

Legislation protecting the probe is brought to the senate. it complicates republican efforts for his nominee by the end of the european here is a senator flake from earlier today. >> the improper installation of an acting attorney general, who has not been subject to confirmation by this body, the president now has this investigation in his sights, and we all know it. >> of the justice department released a 20 page legal opinio opinion. relying on the federal vacancies reform act. the department...

Attorney general jeff sessions resigned the acting position falls to his deputy, rod rosenstein. he recently oversaw robert muellers investigation. the office of legal counsel found presidents may use the vacancy reform act as an alternative which was recognized and used by president bush and obama. earlier today more reaction on the hill. >> we went to make sure the acting attorney general does not interfere with the mueller investigation. >> how the president feels about the mueller investigat...

Then its a very unclear situation, what we can and should do at that point. >> you, today, do have some concern and fear that whitaker will try the end the probe prematurely? >> well, end is a strong word. what is more likely is he would try to curtail it or scale it back, cut the funds, death by 1,000 cuts, if you will, and i think theres a serious question as to whether he has a constitutional power to do so. the constitution is very clear that these positions require senate confirmation, and ...

Take over the house majority have made crystal clear this is going to be issue number one for them. >> susan, you are a lawyer. how serious are these lawsuits? >> i think they are serious, and theyre certainly open legal questions here about whether it is a violation of the appointments clause of the constitution. ultimately, even if the government prevails it is an enormous legal headache, an enormous distraction for them and it was entirely avoidable if the president had just slowed down, actu...

But i really think that if you read the appointments clause of the u.s. constitution, it is absolutely clear that the attorney general has to go through a confirmation process with the u.s. senate. you cant just appoint anybody in the department of justice who has not been confirmed to go into the acting position. also youve got a law thats been around for 100 years that basically sets up the line of succession in the department of justice. it doesnt mean you can take some low-level assistant, l...

That clearly will get democrats and even some republicans in the senate on capitol hills eyebrows raised. i think this is a serious issue, and i think the president has put himself in a difficult position. in may not rise to the level -- i dont buy the argument that it rises to the level of a conflict of interest but its important, this acting position does not have to be confirmed by the senate so its going to get a lot of scrutiny. >> harris: what youre saying is its more of a political talkin...

Organizations -- and then the president starts to distance himself. the classic phrase is i dont really know him. he did that with paul manafort, who ran the campaign. whitakers positioning here is very clear. he was put in the justice department because he opposed the special counsel, to watch what was happening in that office and now hes expected to do the exact same thing in this acting position. >> go ahead. >> one of the reasons the president liked him, he had been in the oval repeatedly be...