The constitutional violation Calabresi points to is mirrored by a specific legal drafting defect in the Special Counsel regulations, which explicitly purport to vest in a Special Counsel "the full power and independent authority to exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney". (28 C.F.R. § 600.6).
See my earlier analysis here:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3560542/posts
Not only the Constitution, but congressional statutory law (28 U.S. Code § 541) confirms that US Attorneys must be appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate.
Indeed, in at least one important respect, Special Counsel Mueller has greater powers than a US Attorney: Mr. Mueller is not limited to bringing criminal indictments in a particular U.S. judicial district; he may roam the entire country and bring criminal indictments wherever he pleases.
Mr. Mueller is investigating a large number of people.
He has already charged defendants with many different kinds of crimes unrelated to his announced endeavor......
That’s too much power for an “inferior officer” to have.
Only a “principal officer,” such as a U.S. attorney, can behave the way Mr. Mueller is behaving.
Mr. Mueller is much more powerful today than any of the 96 U.S. attorneys.
At issue is the US Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which provides that “principal officers” must be appointed by the president with the Senate’s consent.
Mueller has become a self-appointed Torquemada, charging anyone he wants with any crime he wants. The only end that justifies the means is getting Trump.
This investigation has always been a political enterprise that is seeking to indict Trump in any way possible. As such its “legality” will be determined by the political perspective of the judges that hear the case. Partisan Democratic appointees will do all they can that any evidence, however it was obtained or manufactured that harms Trump will be admissible. It may ultimately not hold up on appeal or rational analysis but the purpose has always been to mortally wound Trump politically so as to ensure his impeachment by a Democratic Congress and at the least prevent him from being reelected or being able to implement his policies.
In essence what Rosenstein has done is take someone off the street (not someone already a prosecutor) and purport to vest that person with all the awesome power and authority of a United States Attorney. But without having to go through the nomination and confirmation process of an actual US Attorney.
I gather that Rosenstein senses that legally speaking he is on thin ice as to the validity of the Mueller appointment, based on what I heard from him the other day at his talk at the Newseum.
Rosenstein made a passing remark about the legal basis for appointing special counsels and indicated that the legal power for the DOJ to appoint a de facto US Attorney like Mueller derives from the same source by which the Attorney General can appoint a temporary US Attorney when the post is vacant.
But that’s really apples and oranges and shouldn’t get them far with a good judge.
Why the HELL does Trump still have Democrats working in his White House?
Nobody will do a thing about Mueller and his investigation until he submits his report.
Too bad Trump doesn’t have the gonads to Fire Him.
Scalia was right. The statute is unconstitutional.
Ellis will dismiss to save Mueller from real legal jeopardy. The swamp lives on.
That's a sugar-coated way of saying he broke the law. Why the hell hasn't he been arrested?
Oh. Right. Because Jeff Sessions is part of the swamp.
Mueller is corrupt.
This is a very good argument. Unfortunately it has swallowed the quaint idea that the government that we live under has the slightest intent to follow the constitution of 1789.
It is only used today as a template. Whatever the oligarchy wants to do must be written in a way that seems to follow it. But make no mistake, our government no longer feels bound to it. The only other use they find for it is when they want to use it against the people in some manner.
Isn't this what these Leftist subversives of our legal system do? Remember when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Comey was "wrong to usurp the attorney general's authority" by determining the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails should be closed without prosecution?
“THAT WAS ON THE LINE!” - Mueller McEnrow
Muler ( Myooooler)is part of an extended crime syndicate of liberal fascists at the DOJ and the FBI who want to gather evidence for impeachment , betting that democrats will win the HOuse in November. That’s his true motivation.
Muler is getting desperate because he can find no evidence of impeachable offenses by PDJT , nor can he get Flynn, Mannafort or Cohen to fabricate evidence either, which is why all the hoopla. Muler is desperate and doesn’t care about the law.
Mueler needs to be arrested and prosecuted along with Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, Brennan, Clapper, Hillary Clinton, and others. Use the RICO statute to do it.
1. I hope Judge Ellis reads the WSJ. It truly would be great if he tossed out everything Mannafort prior to July 2016.
2. Anyone who thinks Trump wants the Mueller investigation to continue is delusional. Trump most definitely wants it to end, as do most rational Trump supporters.
3. Rush’s theory was about why Trump doesn’t declassify things, not why doesn’t he fire Mueller. Rush prefaced it, with (paraphrasing) I don’t know why he doesn’t declassify, it is very puzzling. He should. But there are some theories, and I don’t know...one is...etc. (Rush is in favor of declassifying)
4. If Trump could fire Mueller with little political cost, he would in a heartbeat. He’s likely constantly weighing it every day.
5. Nobody knows why he won’t declassify, but he seems to be heading in that direction...again, he is probably weighing that every day, and getting very mixed advice.
Mueller has so much power, he can indict Russian companies that don’t even exist.
Be still my heart, someone actually is injected sound reason into this runaway circus train. We cannot have unelected people accountable to unelected people running amuck in our justice system.