'There is a real danger' Bill Barr could get the courts to make Trump totally immune from oversight:

[CousinIT]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/there-is-a-real-danger-bill-barr-could-get-the-courts-to-make-trump-totally-immune-from-oversight-ex-doj-official/

On Monday, The New Yorker profiled Attorney General William Barr, and identified him as the key figure behind the Trump administration’s ideological drive to concentrate power within the executive branch — a battle that has intensified as impeachment proceedings have heated up and is gearing up to play out in federal courts.

“Barr maintains that Article II of the Constitution gives a President control of all executive-branch agencies, without restriction,” wrote The New Yorker‘s David Rohde. “In practice, this means that Trump would be within his rights to oversee an investigation into his own misconduct.”

Republican attorney Chuck Cooper argues that Barr’s ideology is the culmination of a drive that began during the Reagan years. “He is building and extending on a foundation. It was popularized and very robustly advanced by the Meese Justice Department,” said Cooper. Meese, a controversial attorney general who also had a broad view of executive power, was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump.

Some legal experts, like Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes, believe Barr’s moves to weaken congressional oversight of executive power will be largely repudiated by the courts, particularly the administration’s stance on executive privilege. “The idea that the President gets to assert executive privilege over material that has already been made public is laughable,” said Wittes. “I think they are very likely to lose a lot of this.”

But others, like George W. Bush’s former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, believe Barr has a chance of victory. “The ultimate question is what happens when these reach the Supreme Court, which has two Trump appointees,” said Ayer. “There is a real danger that he succeeds … This, I believe, was his opportunity — the opportunity of a lifetime — to make major progress on advancing his vision of an all-powerful Chief Executive.”

And NYU Law professor Stephen Gillers warns that this battle is not just playing out in the courts, but in the staffing of the FBI and Justice Department itself — by creating such a hostile environment for the old guard of career public servants that they leave and make room for partisan loyalists. Gillers fears this trend will accelerate if Trump is re-elected in 2020.

[spanone]

1. time to impeach barr.

[Peregrine Took]

2. +1,000,000 n/t

[Pachamama]

6. +10000 - And Pompeo

As soon as possible - may even be more important than impeaching Trump again with additional articles. And to saving our Nation and Constitution.

[C_U_L8R]

3. So what happens in one year when there's a Democratic President?

Something is amiss with Republican strategy unless they think they can succeed with a wholesale dismantling of our government in the next few months. It seems that's their intention but they are such inept stumblebums. On another point, how much of our money are they wasting on this stupid fascist fantasy????

[0rganism]

5. about 1 year too soon to count that chicken

the Republicans don't have to dismantle the government, they just have to rig an election. they've done it before and they'll have plenty of help doing it again.

[woodsprite]

9. They don't intend for there ever to be another Democratic president. nt

[Newest Reality]

4. See where this is going?

The big picture is far more horrifying than the sum of its pixels and the blaring trumpet is much louder than the sum of the sound bytes.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[mr_lebowski]

8. Man I gotta get on that passport thing and start working on my eligibility for Canada or NZ

Or ... someplace else in general.

[Grins]

10. I can't remember the last honorable Republican AG..

Maybe the one Nixon fired?