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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn 'Brutal Assessment' of Barr, Ex-Colleague Says AG Backs Trump to Boost Executive Power
by Alberto Luperon | 2:46 pm, June 30th, 2019
A former colleague of Attorney General William Barr is arguing that the AG misled the public about the results of the Mueller investigation in order to better establish a presidency exercising unchecked executive power. He also pointed forward an unsolicited anti-Mueller memo that Barr wrote before becoming AG.
From a new op-ed in The Atlantic by Donald Ayer, who preceded Barr as Deputy Attorney General when George H.W. Bush was president:
Ayer described Barr as long being a fierce advocate of unchecked presidential power. (Georgetown Law Professor Jonathan Turley, a friend of Barrs, previously told The New York Times the AGs default is Article II of the Constitution.) But Ayer now looks at the extent that Barr went to expand executive power.
Ayer found that in the AGs opinion, there shouldnt even have been a special counsel: in Barrs view, the only check on gross misconduct by the president is impeachment, and the very idea of an independent or special counsel investigating the president is a constitutional anathema.
more
https://lawandcrime.com/politics/in-brutal-assessment-of-barr-ex-colleague-says-ag-backs-trump-to-boost-executive-power/
dalton99a
(81,635 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,308 posts)leftieNanner
(15,173 posts)Very scary stuff
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,638 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)J
BigmanPigman
(51,638 posts)Translation: Destroy the country so you can personally profit.
How patriotic...
pangaia
(24,324 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)The Reagan administration came up with the BS unitary executive theory as a way to hamstring future Democratic administrations.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)The reason why rightwingers back executive power is because it prevents effective regulation.
It means that every time a GOP President is elected, they can completely undo everything past Democratic Presidents have done.
For example, Obama did work at the EPA to use regulation to keep air and water clean. By rights, that work at the EPA should continue.
But unitary executive theory means Trump can completely undo everything and make EPA do whatever HE wants.
Strong executive means destroy government to cut taxes on the rich.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,274 posts)Remember this was the guy who urged Bush I to pardon those convicted in Iran-Contra.