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Editor's note: Bret Stephens has been an opinion columnist for The Times since April 2017. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his comments on The Wall Street Journal in 2013 and was previously editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Of all the ways in which Donald Trump's presidency has worsened America, nothing sums it up as clearly as the rise of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General of the United States. The intellectually honest conservatives – the remaining six or seven, anyway – have to say it loud and clear. His appointment represents unprecedented damage to the integrity and reputation of the Department of Justice, the Senate's advisory and consent function, and the rule of law in the United States.
How? A first pass list:
Without reservation. Until this week, the least qualified attorney general of all time was Alberto Gonzales, who unfortunately served in George W. Bush's second term before resigning under a legal cloud. Yet, Gonzales could still be credited for his service in the air force, a Harvard law degree, four years of service as a White House lawyer and two years in office. as a judge on the Texas Supreme Court.
This makes Gonzales the intellectual equivalent of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. next to Whitaker, whose legal references include a little over a year at the Department of Justice as head of law. Staff of Jeff Sessions, a few unsuccessful political attempts in Iowa, as an American lawyer and works in regional law firms. Never in the history of the Department of Justice have we pressed so much on the shoulders of someone who can boast so little.
Shady. Congratulations to Brittany Shammas of the Miami New Times for reporting that Whitaker was a paid board member of World Patent Marketing, which was closed in May by a Florida federal court and ordered to pay a $ 25 million settlement. dollars as a result of a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission that it was a commercial scam. Whitaker wrote at least one email of intimidation to a client who had threatened to complain to the Bureau of Business Ethics about the company's business practices.
Now, it turns out that the FBI Miami office is conducting a criminal investigation into World Patent Marketing. It would be the same FBI that Whitaker oversees in his new job.
A hack. The FACT Monitoring Group (Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust), a conservative monitoring group, was also right to express itself from an essentially virtual Washington address to gather land on Hillary Clinton. , Merrick Garland and other GOP enemies. It is not illegal. It's just depressing and unhelpful and telling the world that Whitaker lived before his sudden rise.
A crackpot. Whitaker was asked in 2014 to name "some of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court." He did not mention Dred Scott c. Sandford, the worst decision of all time. He did not mention Plessy c. Ferguson, the second worst. He did not even mention Roe v. Wade or Griswold c. Connecticutthe cases of abortion made by the Christian right to which he belongs.
Instead, he named Marbury c. Madisonwhich, he lamented, made the Supreme Court "the final arbiter of constitutional questions". It is not a quarrel with a decision. This is an objection to the system. We have an acting Attorney General who does not believe in the constitutional order of which he is the chief legal advisor.
Barely legal. Neal Katyal and George Conway (the best half of Kellyanne) advanced in the New York Times opinion that Whitaker's nomination was unconstitutional, as the Senate did not confirm his appointment. Among other issues, their argument relies too heavily on an agreement written by Clarence Thomas in a case involving an appointment to the National Labor Relations Board.
But if Whitaker's appointment is legal under the Vacancy Reform Act, it's, uh, barely legal. Acting Directors General are usually alternates, previously confirmed as deputy ministers, who serve for a few days pending the approval of their replacement by the Senate. Whitaker is being installed for seven months, or twice as long. A Republican Senate that allows a Republican President to evade his council and consent functions allows each future president to do the same.
Dangerous. Democrats worry about what the rise of Whitaker means for Robert Mueller's investigation. They are right to be. Whitaker's public record of aggressive hostility to the Mueller probe prevents him from overseeing it. If he does not recuse himself from the role, the Democratic Chamber should immediately act to remove him. The Senate is not likely to condemn, but let the Republicans own this fiasco.
This shows how atrocious this appointment is, even Trump now distances himself from Whitaker, falsely claiming he does not know him despite his repeated visits to the Oval Office. This is Michael Cohen's treatment. When a rat smells like a rat, it's a rat. Only a Republican in 2018 might not notice.
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