On Wednesday, recent Trump appointee Judge Neomi Rao gave a ridiculous ruling on the Flynn case. Her decision is not based on any legal precedent, but on strictly partisan politics. It's all about bailing out Trump and his pal Michael Flynn.
Fox's Shannon Bream brought on John Yoo, (the infamous lawyer that wrote the Dubya-era opinion that it was perfectly legal to torture detainees) and Bradley Moss, a national security attorney, to discuss Mark Joseph Stern's excellent article on the legal debacle brought about by Neomi Rao’s highly political decision.
While gutting a vital check of executive misconduct, Rao whitewashed the Justice Department’s flagrantly political decision to drop charges against Flynn—hours before the House Judiciary Committee heard whistleblowers testify about political interference at the DOJ, including in Flynn’s case.
Yoo said, "The Constitution gives only to the executive branch, and ultimately the president, the power to decide who to prosecute and how to carry it out."
"Judges have no constitutional means to force the executive branch to keep prosecuting people that the executive branch doesn't want to," he said.
During his monologue, Yoo kept saying "when President Biden is in office." "How would liberals feel if Biden wasn't afforded these privileges?" -- which made Shannon Bream quite uncomfortable.
Let's not forget that Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI -- the prosecution was over, Mr. Yoo.
After Bream read off a statement by Flynn's attorney she turned to Bradley Moss for a response.
Moss considered Flynn's lawyer's statement a nice conspiratorial take, because President Obama and his team had every right to look into Michael Flynn's actions with Russia.
"So what," Moss said. They are allowed to have those conversations. There was an ongoing counterintelligence concern..."
Then he lowered the boom.
"To protect Donald Trump how much are you going to insulate the presidency from any and all scrutiny that we put in place after Watergate?"
He continued, "Now we have 'Congress can't sue to compel witnesses to testify, judges have to rubber-stamp when the DOJ and Fed lawyers collude together to throw out a case for the president's buddy -- and the government today just issued an opinion saying there can be personal animus behind DOJ investigations and it's fine."
"So my question is is there any limitation on the executive branch?"
To protect Donald Trump, conservatives have thrown out the rule of law and the Constitution. They've abandoned every "principle" they used against Democrats, all to insulate and defend Donald Trump's indefensible actions in the Oval Office.
It's despicable.
Make sure to read Mark Joseph Stern's excellent article on the legal debacle resulting from Neomi Rao’s highly political decision.
