People can complain about The Orange Man all they want, but this Biden presidency is going to go down as the worst in modern history. Absolutely unbelievable the stuff they pulled off as normal, no big deal, don’t believe your eyes/ears.
Peter, do you know what the steps for the Trump administration to take are? That is, does Bondi begin investigating, then Congress has to act, or what?
The pardons where one of Biden’s staff wrote I approve could be invalid; the problem is Biden could just say he had verbally approved them there’s nothing constitutionally that states pardons have to be done in writing.
I'm not sure the autopen scandal is something Congress can substantively address, other than the usual (and generally performative) oversight committee hearings.
The use of the autopen itself is not the legal or Constitutional problem. The problem is the decision-making that goes ahead of the autopen.
Congress could adopt a resolution rejecting the Bush-era OLC memorandum opinion, but realistically the Congress would be out of step with centuries of English and American common law if they did so.
It's unclear to what extent even impeachment is a possibility, as the White House staffers involved might not qualify as civil officers of the United States.
That is why this is a true Constitutional crisis, as we are looking at a breakdown in the structure and hierarchy of the Executive Branch itself. This is the system coming completely off the rails--this is not the system working badly, this is the system not working at all.
How does an Executive Branch police itself to ensure that the decisions which must be made only by the President are in fact made only by the President?
I don't know that Congress is Constitutionally equipped to answer that question.
If you can successfully prove a staffer made the decision then the next step is to declare there were few if any Biden pardons. All the rest were staffer opinions on who should be let off the hook. Or by bribed staffers.
People can complain about The Orange Man all they want, but this Biden presidency is going to go down as the worst in modern history. Absolutely unbelievable the stuff they pulled off as normal, no big deal, don’t believe your eyes/ears.
Peter, do you know what the steps for the Trump administration to take are? That is, does Bondi begin investigating, then Congress has to act, or what?
The DoJ is already investigating. That was an earlier Trump Executive Order.
The question is at what point is the evidence sufficient to justify challenging some of the Biden pardons.
Will Congress act on this information?
I don't think this is up to Congress.
If the pardons are invalid, then people like Fauci are now fair game.
This is going to end up in front of the Supreme Court.
The pardons where one of Biden’s staff wrote I approve could be invalid; the problem is Biden could just say he had verbally approved them there’s nothing constitutionally that states pardons have to be done in writing.
Does issuing stern warnings count? Does speaking in sound bites for five minutes each count? Because if so, then gosh darn it, they sure will.
I'm not sure the autopen scandal is something Congress can substantively address, other than the usual (and generally performative) oversight committee hearings.
The use of the autopen itself is not the legal or Constitutional problem. The problem is the decision-making that goes ahead of the autopen.
Congress could adopt a resolution rejecting the Bush-era OLC memorandum opinion, but realistically the Congress would be out of step with centuries of English and American common law if they did so.
It's unclear to what extent even impeachment is a possibility, as the White House staffers involved might not qualify as civil officers of the United States.
That is why this is a true Constitutional crisis, as we are looking at a breakdown in the structure and hierarchy of the Executive Branch itself. This is the system coming completely off the rails--this is not the system working badly, this is the system not working at all.
How does an Executive Branch police itself to ensure that the decisions which must be made only by the President are in fact made only by the President?
I don't know that Congress is Constitutionally equipped to answer that question.
It might be you have to charge the staffer with forgery. Thereby voiding their pardons.
There's certainly a case building for charging White House staffers with something.
If you can successfully prove a staffer made the decision then the next step is to declare there were few if any Biden pardons. All the rest were staffer opinions on who should be let off the hook. Or by bribed staffers.
That's where it gets interesting. There is already email evidence of Jeffrey Zeints saying "I approve" with respect to certain pardons.
Even Clintonian word parsing is challenged to cover that bit of sel-incrimination.
Last year I would have bet bigly against this issue going anywhere. Now there's a real possibility this turns into a corruption scandal for the ages