Former President Donald Trump is, predicably, going on the offensive.
Just days after being indicted on federal charges for the alleged mishandling of classified documents, Trump promised that, if re-elected president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” the Biden family.
“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said on Tuesday night, just hours after his arraignment. “I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”
Trump’s statement suggests that, were he re-elected, he would seek to degrade the DOJ’s autonomy from the White House, using a novel legal theory that restructures the relationship between DOJ and White House
Restructuring the DOJ
Trump’s goal “fits into a larger movement on the right to gut the F.B.I., overhaul a Justice Department conservatives claim has been “weaponized” against them and abandon the norm – which many Republicans view as a façade – that the department should operate independently from the president,” The New York Times reported.
Now, Trump’s team is using a legal rationale that could change the way relationship between the DOJ and the White House. Specifically, the legal rational proposes that “U.S. presidents should not keep federal law enforcement at arm’s length but instead should treat the Justice Department no differently than any other cabinet agency,” The New York Times reported.
One of the lawyers promoting the legal rationale, Jeffrey B. Clarke, is also a proponent of the unitary executive theory, which holds that the president has the power to “control the entire federal bureaucracy” without interference from Congress, who “cannot fracture” the president’s control “by giving some officials independent decision-making authority.”
Trump claims charges are politically motivated
Donald Trump’s desire to restructure the DOJ coincides with suggestions that the only reason the DOJ charged him is because he is Biden’s political opponent. To be fair, the DOJ is currently investigating Biden for his own classified documents snafu; And the DOJ is investigating Hunter Biden’s business transactions, suggesting that the DOJ is indeed a non-partisan entity, as intended. But Trump raises a premise that deserves inspection.
The DOJ is housed within the executive branch, which Biden of course controls. That’s not significant on its face. What seems potentially significant, however, is that the DOJ is pursuing criminal charges for an administrative issue against Biden’s chief political rival. The situation is objectively suspicious.
Classified documents are an administrative issue. So when someone mishandles classified documents, that person almost invariably faces an administrative punishment, i.e. they are fired, or they have their security clearance revoked, something along those lines. It’s not a criminal issue, it doesn’t involve the DOJ or a grand jury, and no ones facing a prospective prison sentence.
Trump, on the other hand, is facing 37-federal charges and a prospective prison sentence. At 77, Trump is realistically facing a terminal prison sentence, meaning he would probably die in prison.
Serious stuff.
Making the situation all the more bizarre is the fact that Trump, when still president, had the ability to unilaterally declassify the documents in question. He could basically waved a pen in the air, or directed some underling, to declassify whatever Trump liked.
Donald Trump failed to do so, which was lazy and/or stupid – but the resultant charges are essentially hammering a technicality.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
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