Okay, everyone: here is the OFFICIAL Job Description for Deputy Attorney General

[brooklynite]

On May 24, 1950, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath created the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG). The Deputy Attorney, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the Department's second-ranking official and functions as a Chief Operating Officer; 25 components and 93 U.S. Attorneys report directly to the Deputy and 13 additional components report to the Deputy through the Associate Attorney General. On a daily basis, the Deputy decides a broad range of legal, policy and operational issues.

The mission of the ODAG is to advise and assist the Attorney General in formulating and implementing Department policies and programs and in providing overall supervision and direction to all organizational units of the Department.

The major functions of the DAG are to:

+ Exercise all the power and authority of the Attorney General unless any such power or authority is required by law to be exercised by the Attorney General personally or has been specifically delegated exclusively to another Department official.

+ Represent DOJ at White House coordination meetings of the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, and maintain staff to address related Justice policy.

+ Act on behalf of the Attorney General for purposes of authorizing searches and electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Executive Order 12333 on Intelligence.

+ Review and recommend to the Attorney General whether to seek or decline to seek the death penalty in specific cases.

+ Act as initial contact with the White House on pending criminal matters.

+ Recommend to the White House, after consultation with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, whether the President should grant specific petitions of pardon or commutation of sentence.

+ Be responsible for all DOJ attorney personnel matters, including final action in matters pertaining to the employment, separation, and discipline (except for GS-15 and below attorney matters which have been delegated to the Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management.

+ Coordinate and control the Department's reaction to civil disturbances and terrorism.

+ Oversee budget matters as well as certify to Congress the cost-effectiveness of DOJ investments in information technology.

+ Set enforcement priorities in consultation with the Attorney General, to address key priorities, chair inter-and intra-agency task forces and organizations, e.g., National Procurement Fraud Task Force, International Organized Crime Council, National Corporate Fraud Task Force, Anti-Gang Coordination Committee, Attorney General Advisory Committee.

+ Manage high-priority program offices that reside within ODAG, e.g, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Privacy and Civil Liberties Office, the Faith Based and Community Initiatives Task Force, and the Iraq Rule of Law program. The ODAG also shares with the Associate Attorney General oversight responsibility for the Office of Tribal Justice.

+ Perform such other activities and functions as may be assigned from time to time by the Attorney General.

Nothing states, and no law requires, that the Deputy AG becomes Acting AG if the Attorney General post is vacated.

[unblock]

1. 28 usc 508:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/508

28 U.S. Code § 508 - Vacancies

(a) In case of a vacancy in the office of Attorney General, or of his absence or disability, the Deputy Attorney General may exercise all the duties of that office, and for the purpose of section 3345 of title 5 the Deputy Attorney General is the first assistant to the Attorney General.
(b) When by reason of absence, disability, or vacancy in office, neither the Attorney General nor the Deputy Attorney General is available to exercise the duties of the office of Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General shall act as Attorney General. The Attorney General may designate the Solicitor General and the Assistant Attorneys General, in further order of succession, to act as Attorney General.



the vacancies reform act has other provisions, and that appears to be where donnie is trying to assert that he can temporarily appoint some random, non-senate-confirmed stooge, though i don't see any such authority there, either.

[Qutzupalotl]

2. Judge Napolitano analysis:

Link to tweet

[hlthe2b]

3. I think I will go with the preeminent Laurence Tribe on this, who states quite the opposite

He'll be on MSNBC at 2:30 ET to discuss, btw

Link to tweet

More:

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

[brooklynite]

4. "unless Sessions truly "resigned"".....

Sessions submitted a Letter of Resignation. You can debate whether he was forced to do so, but legally he resigned.

[hlthe2b]

6. Kindly read Tribes' discussion of this before discounting. Someone of Tribe's caliber deserves that

rather than an armchair dismissal of his legal mind.


Here, let me make it easier for you. The letter clearly stated "at your request", meaning the President. Not to mention the near two year record of Trump's online and vocal commentary stating his intent to fire him....

[unblock]

7. i'm not seeing anything in the vra where it helps donnie if sessions actually "resigned".

i see the phrase "dies, resigns, or otherwise is unable to perform the duties", but i don't see how that treats firing as any different.
surely sessions is unable to perform the duties of a job he's been fired from. so resigns vs. fired doesn't matter.

moreover, the vra still requires any appointment to be someone confirmed by the senate.

i don't see where donnie has the authority to appoint a random, non-confirmed hack.

[hlthe2b]

13. Katyal:

Link to tweet

[tavernier]

8. ...Tribe...

If Whittaker’s appointment today had been legal, he’d have to recuse. But because it’s illegal, the issue of recusal shouldn’t even arise. First things first.

[California_Republic]

5. That will make a nice sign for tonight's protests

[Bayard]

9. Remember the Air Force 1 trip?

The one that Rosenstein made recently? I'm thinking tRump told him what he was planning then.

[mr_lebowski]

10. Well, aren't Deputies the ones who 'take over' if the AG ends up in a Hospital Bed ... ala Ashcroft?

If so, that would suggest that they are LOGICAL 'interim directors' in the event of a sudden, errrr ... resignation ... would it not?

I would stipulate that, overall, the elevation instead of an unqualified, lackey STAFFER into the post of Interim AG, in an obvious attempt to protect a POTUS from a Federal investigation ... is at BEST ... HIGHLY UNORTHODOX, and at worst, a blatant crime of obstruction.

[UniteFightBack]

11. Who is a proper party to sue? nt

[hlthe2b]

12. NYTimes: Trump's Appointment of the Acting Attorney General Is Unconstitutional

NYTimes: Trump's Appointment of the Acting Attorney General Is Unconstitutional

The president is evading the requirement to seek the Senate’s advice and consent for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and the person who will oversee the Mueller investigation.

Matthew Whitaker, named acting attorney general on Wednesday after the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions, was Mr. Sessions's chief of staff.CreditCreditCharlie Neibergall/Associated Press

What now seems an eternity ago, the conservative law professor Steven Calabresi published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in May arguing that Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. His article got a lot of attention, and it wasn’t long before President Trump picked up the argument, tweeting that “the Appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”

Professor Calabresi’s article was based on the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2. Under that provision, so-called principal officers of the United States must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate under its “Advice and Consent” powers.
He argued that Mr. Mueller was a principal officer because he is exercising significant law enforcement authority and that since he has not been confirmed by the Senate, his appointment was unconstitutional. As one of us argued at the time, he was wrong. What makes an officer a principal officer is that he or she reports only to the president. No one else in government is that person’s boss. But Mr. Mueller reports to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. So, Mr. Mueller is what is known as an inferior officer, not a principal one, and his appointment without Senate approval was valid.

But Professor Calabresi and the president were right about the core principle. A principal officer must be confirmed by the Senate. And that has a very, very significant consequence today

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opinion/trump-attorney-general-sessions-unconstitutional.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage