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BREAKING: This weekend Peter Navarro former Assistant to the President pulled back the covers on how the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel handled both Trump's and Biden's Executive Orders. What he revealed was both surprising and not surprising and worthy of a thread.
2/ The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is charged with reviewing all Executive Orders (EOs) for both legality and form. There are all sorts of administrative laws that regulate the operation and procedures of government agencies and an EO must conform or face legal challenges.
3/ When Trump took office he turned over more than 30 EOs to the OLC. Two peculiar things happened. First, a LOT of the EOs got tied up in very lengthy legal reviews. We now know that the OLC was dragging its feet to delay the implementation of the EOs for as long as possible.
4/ The OLC delivered copies of the EOs they were stonewalling to Democrats who began preparing legal challenges to present to sympathetic judges who would immediately issue restraining orders preventing the orders from going into effect.
5/ Perhaps even more pernicious was the fact that the OLC left prima facie flaws in the EOs they returned to the White House for signature. The EOs related to travel bans and DACA had the most egregious errors that violated administrative law ensuring they would be blocked.
6/ Due to the OLC's decision to stall President Trump's EOs it took the President until almost May to get his first 30 Executive Orders signed. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/here-s-full-list-donald-trump-s-executive-orders-n720796
7/ More unprecedented is the fact that more than 30 injections blocking President Trump's Executive Orders were handed down by federal judges in his first two years in office. https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/federal-judges-increasingly-block-presidential-orders
8/ Before President Biden was even President-Elect the Office of Legal Counsel had drafts of 30 of his proposed in the hands of OLC lawyers. With the campaign coming to a head and the polls showing Biden the clear leader in October, the OLC began quietly working on Biden's EOs.
9/ After the November 3rd election the OLCs work was no longer 'quiet' but progressing in earnest with the full support of Attorney General Barr. At some point, President Trump learned that his OLC lawyers were working on Biden's Executive Orders and lost his shit.
10/ Trump's lawyers were working overtime to ensure that Biden was able to reverse everything that the president had accomplished in his first 2 weeks in office. It was unethical and possibly illegal. The OLC represents the president. https://www.rawstory.com/peter-navarro-deep-state-coup/
11/ How could OLC lawyers represent BOTH the current and future president at the same time? Not wanting yet another scandal the president allowed AG Barr to retire in peace while he focused on his election challenges. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/26/how-one-secretive-justice-department-office-can-sway-whole-government/
12/ The efforts of Barr's Office of Legal Counsel were successful allowing President Biden to sign all 30 of his initial Executive Orders in his first two weeks in office - beating FDR's record - something that took President Trump almost five months. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/03/963380189/with-28-executive-orders-signed-president-biden-is-off-to-a-record-start
13/ It is clear that the OLC and even AG Barr had joined the 'cabal' that Time Magazine recently reported and they were attempting to 'fortify' democracy by ensuring Biden had a headstart when he took office in January.
14/ Imagine if Trump called up a government agency and had them begin working on projects that worked at cross purposes to President Biden. Not only would it be unacceptable it could be dangerous - especially if he was able to convince the Defense Department to work with him.
