Mark Paoletta is probably not widely known to most Americans, but in the nation’s capital, especially in Republican legal circles, he is a well-known figure. In fact, for the past decade, Paoletta served as legal counsel to then-Vice President Mike Pence, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget in the first Trump administration, and even represented Ginni Thomas.
This week, the GOP lawyer took on a new role, helping to oversee Donald Trump’s plans for the Justice Department during the transition period before the inauguration. That wouldn’t be particularly notable were it not for the fact that Paoletta also released an online statement this week arguing that Trump will have the right to dictate who gets investigated by federal law enforcement — and perhaps even who gets charged. Politico reported:
“He has a duty to oversee DOJ, including, if necessary, on specific cases,” Paoletta wrote on X. “Our system does not allow for an agency that is unaccountable. As Chief Justice Roberts stated against Trump in the US, ‘the Constitution vests entire executive power in the President.’” Paoletta noted that President Ronald Reagan halted a grand jury antitrust investigation into British airlines in 1984 and President George H. W. Bush in 1992 urged the Justice Department to intensify its investigation into the Los Angeles police officers involved in the beating of motorist Rodney King.
In the same message, the lawyer wrote that Democrats “went after Trump” “solely to punish him for being a political opponent” — a claim that still has no basis in reality.
But does Paoletta have a point about presidential authority? As always, context is important. Politico’s report noted that the examples he included were “rare exceptions since the 1970s, when attacks on political opponents by President Richard Nixon and revelations of FBI abuses of civil rights activists’ civil liberties led to policies that aimed to cut off the White House from civil and criminal enforcement actions overseen by the Justice Department. Since President Jimmy Carter, officials from every administration — including Trump’s first — have issued memos limiting such contacts.”
Apparently, there is new reason to believe that the post-Watergate firewalls – built to prevent undue political influence over prosecutorial decision-making – will face new challenges in the new year, which is not good news for those concerned concerns about the future of the rule. of the law.
But when you hear Paoletta tell it, there is no reason to worry. “President Trump will not use the DOJ for political purposes, i.e. to go after individuals simply because they are political opponents,” he added.
That might be more reassuring if it weren’t for the overwhelming evidence that Trump repeatedly attempted to use the Justice Department for political purposes – targeting individuals during his first term simply because they were political opponents.
In fact, not until 2020 – almost four years after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton – the then-president publicly called for the Democrat’s incarceration and lobbied the Justice Department to prosecute his former opponent for unknown reasons. Around the same time, Trump publicly called on federal prosecutors to charge Joe Biden – then his electoral challenger – with unspecified crimes.
Fortunately, those efforts failed, but the fact that Trump made the effort is what matters.
This was not kept secret. It happened in the open air. We’ve all seen it happen. It’s strange that Paoletta apparently missed it.
As for the bigger picture, New York magazine’s Jon Chait concluded: “A major theme of the conservative rationale for giving Trump power is that he would be stopped by normal Republicans. But now mainstream Republicans say they cannot and will not stop him when it comes to his most dangerous power.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
