Thread: State of Maryland asks judge to declare Rosenstein acting attorney general

State of Maryland asks judge to declare Rosenstein acting attorney general




Trump bypassed Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who is overseeing the special counsel investigation, in favor of Matt Whitaker for acting AG.



State of Maryland asks judge to declare Rosenstein acting attorney general

Nov. 13, 201800:41

Nov. 12, 2018 / 5:18 PM EST / Updated 7:23 AM EST
By Pete Williams

WASHINGTON — The state of Maryland asked a federal judge on Tuesday for an order declaring that Rod Rosenstein is the acting attorney general — not Matt Whitaker, who was appointed to that position last week after the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions.
If the judge does as Maryland asks, ruling that Whitaker cannot serve as attorney general, it would be a blow to President Donald Trump, who bypassed Rosenstein in favor of someone who has repeatedly criticized Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian election meddling.
The Justice Department would immediately appeal any such ruling, and the case could be on a fast track to the Supreme Court.

Whitaker likely to be quickly replaced as Attorney General

Nov. 11, 201812:16

Whitaker's appointment has been widely criticized because he now oversees the special counsel's investigation into Russian election meddling and the president. While serving as a conservative commentator, he questioned the scope of the investigation and said there was no Trump campaign collusion with the Russians. For that reason, several congressional Democrats have urged him to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller's investigation.
Maryland's attorney general, Brian Frosh, a Democrat, argues in court documents filed Tuesday that if Trump had the kind of authority the White House claims, he could fire the attorney general "then appoint a carefully selected senior employee who he was confident would terminate or otherwise severely limit the investigation."
Maryland says that Whitaker's selection by Trump violated federal law and exceeded the appointment authority in the Constitution.
Trump named Whitaker acting attorney general under a law known as the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. It allows a president to fill a vacant Cabinet position with a senior employee of the affected agency. Whitaker fits in that category, because he had been the chief of staff to Sessions.
But Maryland urges the judge to rule that a separate federal law actually governs what happens when the office of attorney general is vacant. It provides that the deputy attorney general takes over, which would be Rosenstein. As the state sees it, the Vacancies Reform Act is more general law, which must give way whenever a specific law provides for filling a Cabinet-level vacancy.

The state also argues that the appointment of Whitaker violates a provision of the Constitution that specifies top positions in the government can be filled only through presidential nomination and confirmation by the Senate. Because Whitaker's nomination bypassed that process, the state says, he cannot serve as acting attorney general.
"It is troubling, to say the least, that the president is attempting to fill a 'vacancy' he created himself with a 'temporary' appointment that might last for many months or years," says Frosh, "especially when, as there, the temporary appointee has not been confirmed by the Senate."
Maryland's legal papers say Whitaker's appointment marks the first time since 1868, when Congress passed a succession law for the Justice Department, that someone named to be acting attorney general was not already serving in a Senate-confirmed position.
The state's motion comes in a lawsuit over the future of Obamacare, seeking a ruling that the Affordable Care Act remains enforceable despite attempts by the Trump administration to shut it down. The case is the mirror image of a lawsuit filed by Texas and 17 other states. It asks a different federal judge to declare that the health care law is no longer enforceable.
Maryland's Obamacare lawsuit named several defendants, including Sessions, who was attorney general when the case was filed in September. With Sessions gone, Maryland says, the judge overseeing the lawsuit should declare that the attorney general defendant is Rod Rosenstein, not Matt Whitaker.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...xwlQnyjvS9j1BI

Hey, why don't we just go to a federal court and ask a Judge to appoint our dear Republicans who lost the elections last Tuesday to Congress because we like them better?

These DemoQuacks have lost their minds.

Acting AG Whitaker: 'Special Counsel is Required' To Investigate Clinton Foundation

By Michael W. Chapman | November 13, 2018 | 4:36 PM EST

Several videos at the page link


Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker. (YouTube)

Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general of the United States and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, said in a 2016 interview that there is enough evidence "in the public domain" to warrant the appointment of a "special prosecutor" to investigate the Clinton Foundation. He added that the Foundation was "clearly a pay-to-play situation" where if you gave money to the Foundation, you got "preferential treatment" at the State Department, which was headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013.
Hillary Clinton's emailing of classified documents through her private computer server was a "serious" problem, but the "real ballgame" is "where Clinton Foundation donors were given preferential treatment," said Whitaker in an Aug. 25, 2016 interview with Breitbart News Daily.
"It’s very interesting to watch the Clinton camp try to explain away these meetings," said Whitaker. "Fifty percent of the meetings she took with people that were not essentially employees or representatives of countries or the like, just sort of individuals that wanted to meet with the Secretary of State, 50 percent of those – as the AP has reported, more than 50 percent – were Clinton Foundation donors."
“It is not possible for them to explain away that Clinton Foundation donors were given preferential treatment when it came to seeing the Secretary of State," he said.
Whitaker further said that the demise of the FBI's investigation into Clinton's illicit use of a private email server is "one of the reasons that a special counsel is required."

Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and former President Bill Clinton. (Getty Images.)

"We need somebody that is independent to look at these facts," he said. "I was concerned when I heard that the Attorney General [Loretta Lynch in 2016] and the politicals at the Department of Justice had determined not to open an investigation into what is clearly a pay-to-play situation where, if you gave money to the Clinton Foundation, you got preferential treatment, if you had business from the State Department."“Based on what I’ve seen, that’s in the public domain currently, I think there’s enough to have a special prosecutor that can look into this, that can have the ability to subpoena documents and interview witnesses and do the kind of things and have the independence separate from this administration," said Whitaker, the former chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
"There is so much here, so much smoke, so many unanswered questions," he said.



(YouTube)

Towards the end of the interview, Whitaker said, "I’ve always thought the Clinton Foundation is a very sophisticated way to get around the campaign finance laws and to allow for unlimited donations and an ability to curry favor with a presidential candidate that, quite frankly, is unprecedented in the history of our country."
Matthew Whitaker was named the acting attorney general of the United States on Nov. 7 by President Donald Trump. Between 2004 and 2009, Whitaker was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. Whitaker is married and has three children.



Hillary Clinton. (Getty Images.)

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael...gSo_v6kirPyXBo