I thought former AG Ed Meese was dead and rotting away in a grave somewhere. He’s not dead but he’s clearly been rotting. Of course he was rotten to begin with as we shall see. What matters is that he’s back from oblivion and filing legal briefs again. Boy has he come up with a doozy. To me it’s a measure of how much legal trouble Trump is truly in. He and his conservative cronies are terrified over the cases Jack Smith has built against the flaming orange human shaped rectum we know as Donald J. Trump.
How desperate are conservatives to protect Trump? The attacks on Special Counsel Jack Smith have been at fever pitch for a long time now. He and his family live under constant threat and yes, credible death threats. There are the (expected) attacks on his credentials (which are impeccable) and character including a new one I found a little while ago while researching for this piece. I won’t delve into Raw Story’s article other than to provide you this summary:
“A new conspiracy theory rising on the right is being deployed to help Donald Trump,” the outlet reported on Saturday. “It claims that Jack Smith, the special counsel who is prosecuting Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for his alleged swiping of classified documents, was part of a multimillion dollar extortion scheme when he was the chief prosecutor investigating and prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo.”
It’s wild even by RWNJ standards but since it’s being pushed in RWNJ circles you should be aware of it. Still, just another even more “out there” than usual throw s**t at the wall and hope something sticks talk. Tinfoil hat/CT crap.
However that’s not what I want to tell you about. What grabbed my attention is a quite short article from right wing outlet State of the Union. In what the headline calls a “Bombshell Report” Jack Smith’s appointment as Special Counsel is being challenged as “Unconstitutional.”
Former Attorney General Ed Meese and two constitutional scholars argue that Smith lacks the authority to represent the United States in the Supreme Court due to his appointment violating the “Appointments Clause” of the Constitution.
My reaction was “Say what?” Followed by “What the hell?” Followed by “Wow!” Of course, seeing that Ed Meese is the driving force here (or at least the face of it) let’s just say I’m skeptical he’s got so much as a toothpick for a leg to stand on. The linked article is precious short on details. For example the names of these two alleged “Constitutional Scholars.” Trump and Rudy? Fredo 1 and Fredo 2 aka Don Jr. and Eric? Do tell. I don’t see names, even Constitutional lawyers who’ve trashed their reputations like Alan Dershowitz or Jonathan Turley being cited. If Meese’s “scholars” are so lame that not even an outlet like State of the Union that publishes a lot of right wing junk will name them, well I have issues with their credentials. So there’s that. Well, I tried anyway to get more information so I clicked on the links in the State of the Union piece and they go to the same website which I won’t bother naming. I’ve never heard of it but what’s interesting is that it’s pretty much the same article that comprises the one in the link I’ve provided.
Still, Meese and his pals have according to it filed an Amicus Brief in the case o United States v. Trump, No. 23-624. In it they claim only Congress gets to create federal offices and that Smith hasn’t been authorized by Congress. According to their way of thinking if Smith is an “officer” with significant authority then by golly he should have been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Can anyone name me any Special Counsel or prior iterations of the position where that’s happened? It hasn’t! In fact, while Special Counsels have been around since Grant was President in the wake of Watergate Congress passed the Ethics In Government Act which among other things set out the authority for the Office of Independent Counsel.
Bear with me here. Independent Counsels replaced the old DOJ Special Prosecutors which had been used until then. Some were critical of the seemingly never ending investigations and how they kept mutating by Independent Counsels and that portion of the law, itle VI amended Title 28 of the United States Code. Title VI of The Act expired on June 30, 1999.
Maybe that inspired an “A HA” moment with Meese. I guess he forgot about this fact:
It has been permanently replaced with Title 28 (CFR), Chapter VI, Part 600.
Oopsie “mister” Meese you piece of s**t. Not to get too deep into the weeds (I’m known for that) but CFR stands for Code of Federal Regulations. the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. It’s divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to federal regulation. With me so far? Here’s where it gets fun, or maybe pain in the ass depending on your point of view.
Meese and perhaps even you might look at the CFR and say “But it’s all the regulations, and not actual laws!” Not exactly. Yes, the CFR contains the whole kit and kaboodle as the old saying goes, but much of what’s in there including the part about Special Counsels is drawn from the United States Code! Care to guess what the U.S. Code is? It happens to be the Code of Laws of the United States of America. Put another way it’s the official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States.
One last legal/technical tidbit. In this link that spells out authorization for and the powers of Special Counsels (CFR, Title 28, Chapter VI Part 600) there’s this tidbit:
Authority:5 U.S.C. 301; 28 U.S.C. 509, 510, 515–519.
Got that Meese? (and your two “experts”) Congress HAS passed a law, giving statutory authority for Special Counsels. Game, Set and Match you asshole!
I suppose it’s no surprise Ed Meese would pop up and come up with crap. He’s a true sleaze and this article is long enough already. Let’s just say if you go to the Wikipedia page on Meese you’ll see how awful he is. Not to mention that while he managed to skate each and every time he was castigated at length and almost found himself being investigated by one of the old Independent Counsels. Maybe he’s having nightmare flashbacks. In any case, the level of bat-sh*t insanity has ratcheted up yet another notch. Sadly, it’s going to get to the point where even this is tame by comparison.
Just because they (guns over people party) say something does not make it true, unless you’re a MAGA.
Or a billionaire.
they don’t mind and it don’t maga.
Jack Smith’s appointment is unconstitutional, eh! What a load of ‘boarding school bullsit’. Just maybe Jack Smith might feel sorry for the GOP because of that they are trying to do to him through their ‘new filing’ because of how they actually feel about their very selves – irrelevant, both individually and collectively.
So, where was Meese when former AG Bill Barr (the last regular Attorney General in the Trump reg–I mean, administration) chose to name John Durham as “special counsel” (and, actually kept that information from Congress for two months) in the closing months of the Trump reg–administration?
It’s also interesting he doesn’t seem to be as opposed to the appointments of Robert Hur (special counsel overseeing the Biden documents “scandal”) or David Weiss (special counsel in the Hunter Biden case). I wonder why that might be?
These just are not bright people. I’d pity them if they were D.D. but they are not. They are willfully and joyfully ignorant.
Look at Volokh Conspiracy blog. Steven Calebresi is making the same argument (regarding the appointment of Jack Smith being unconstitutional).