So Harry Litman sez there are other "secret" memos that prohibit DoJ from indicting coup actors.

[Grasswire2]

OLC memos.

Here's his tweet, followed by another tweet below:

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=PKXwC6zJlP1NRGWkyiQXDA



]

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=ggC_lIDVVjk9Ot2coprNcw




We're screwn. OLC memos that we have never heard about previously.

[Grasswire2]

1. ugh ugh

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=ggC_lIDVVjk9Ot2coprNcw

[Enter stage left]

2. Mind telling us idiots...WTF is "OLC"?

[Grasswire2]

3. here

Office of Legal Counsel -- part of the DoJ. They write memos that we are not allowed to question or sometimes even see.

The John Yoo torture memo is one.

The memo that says a sitting president cannot be indicted is another.

Not laws. Just memos.

[Enter stage left]

4. TY...should have been included in the original post, but thanks again.

[dobleremolque]

22. Agree. Assuming everybody else knows your jargon

is one of the primary barriers to clear communication here on DU.

Writers here would do well to adhere to the journalism style guide which says: "Spell it out completely first, immediately follow with the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses. Then in subsequent references, you can use the short form."

Office of Legal Counsel (OLC); North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); Black Lives Matter (BLM); Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Yes. As someone who lives in a state where only 18% of the land mass is in private ownership, I sort of automatically read BLM to mean Bureau of Land Management and it takes me a while to reorient when I'm reading a post about Black Lives Matter.

So... as for the Original Poster's (OP) information: I am hopeful enough that the OLC isn't the barrier to justice the OP describes, but I won't be surprised if it is.

[PatSeg]

29. And not just on DU

It is common pretty much everywhere. Sometimes people even make up acronyms rather than type out the actual words, leaving people to guess what they meant or try Google. A lot of time wasted that could have been saved if the writer had spent the extra second or two to write the words.

For a long time when I saw BLM, I also thought Bureau of Land Management as well.

Eventually some acronyms become common enough that most people know them, but many of the ones I've come across are not that common and should be spelled out, especially when you aren't limited to how many characters you can use.

[lagomorph777]

32. Yup. We need to be considerate when we use acronyms.

[Achilleaze]

39. Sounds like secret shit to me

Drag all that stuff out into the light of day.

[Grasswire2]

5. take a look at Stephen Engel from wikipedia!

In April 2018, Engel approved airstrikes launched by President Trump against facilities associated with Syria’s chemical-weapons program without congressional authorization.[15] In March 2019, Engel issued a memorandum to Attorney General William Barr making the determination that the evidence laid out in the Mueller report did not support the conclusion that then-President Trump committed obstruction of justice.[16]

In May 2019, Engel issued an opinion concluding that the former White House Counsel, Don McGahn, was immune from compelled congressional testimony.[17] The House Judiciary Committee challenged that decision, and Engel’s opinion was rejected by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was later nominated by Joe Biden to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson’s opinion was twice reversed by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit.[18]

In June 2019, Engel issued an OLC opinion supporting the Justice Department's decision not to release Donald Trump's tax returns.[19]

In September 2019, Engel authored the OLC opinion[20] of the Justice Department to not forward the Trump–Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint[21] to Congress. The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency concluded that Engel's opinion had a "chilling effect on effective oversight" and was "wrong as a matter of law and policy"; urging him to withdraw or modify it.[22][23][24] Engel responded that the opinion had simply applied the law as it was written and that it did not construe the statutory provisions protecting whistleblowers.[25]


Engel's November 3, 2019 letter
In a letter dated November 3, 2019, Engel argued that White House advisors have "absolute immunity" from being subpoenaed to testify in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[26][27][28]

On September 9, 2020, President Donald Trump identified Engel among a list of potential future nominees to the Supreme Court.[29]

[lagomorph777]

33. If Engel is still there, Biden needs to fire him.

[Grasswire2]

34. He's not.

Returned to lucrative private practice.

I'm reviewing his wikipedia cites today. Federalist Society, of course. Yale, of course. Kirkland and Ellis law firm early on, of course.

[bottomofthehill]

6. Simple, write a new memo

It’s not a law, it is guidance. Change the guidance.

[Grasswire2]

9. It takes the AG to change it, and evidently the institution is more important than an informed ..

...electorate.

[airmid]

7. Interesting...memos now override law code or expresses it in ways that supersede law.

[Grasswire2]

8. yep

and they are kept from public view, generally

[Grasswire2]

10. this is why DoJ is not moving on the coup actors

Engel's November 3, 2019 letter
In a letter dated November 3, 2019, Engel argued that White House advisors have "absolute immunity" from being subpoenaed to testify in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[26][27][28]

[Frustratedlady]

26. But surely the fact that this was an attempted coup would be handled differently.

The "absolute immunity" mentioned in your post is bad enough, but destroying our democracy shouldn't be covered under that stupid memo.

A memo is more powerful than a law? Give me a break!

[Grasswire2]

45. who knew?

Federalist Society members seeded into the DoJ, writing memos that supercede law and that have no review by elected senators and representatives.

What could go wrong?

No wonder Moscow Mitch is always grinning.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

11. The rich and powerful use post note memo's to hide their crimes....WTF

this is not a good idea, was never a good idea and is not even legal, Garland do your job.

[global1]

12. Since When Did Memo's Become Law....

I thought that laws are passed by the Congress and enforced by the Judicial branch of our government.

On Edit:

The department is headed by the U.S. Attorney General, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet.

So are you saying that during TFG's term - he authorized the writing of these memo's that take his people off the hook?

[Grasswire2]

15. yes nt

[Silent3]

13. But, but... I've been told we should never read anything into merely apparent inaction

We unwashed masses clearly have no idea what big and important stuff is going on very, very, very quietly.

DoJ is just getting its ducks in a row, and there are lots and lots and lots of ducks. You know, "it's complicated".

DoJ wouldn't stand behind a bunch of silly memos that give them an excuse to do nothing, exactly what they want to do, and then claim that doing nothing to hold the powerful and well-connected accountable is actually a way of taking a principled institution-preserving stand.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

16. Indeed, our sort are oft-chided, aren't we?

We're usually right in the end though.

[OnDoutside]

27. 100% agree.

[lagomorph777]

36. Sadly, true.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. Sounds like a total crock.

[Layzeebeaver]

17. The current OLC should write a superseding memo...

…that overrides the previous memos

Job done.

(Well maybe not, but that’s my other fantasy and I’m sticking to it)!

[onetexan]

25. +1 -K&R

[lagomorph777]

37. Is the current OLC actually different people than the former OLC?

Scary thought.

[Layzeebeaver]

41. I do not know.

But seeing as those people are likely political appointees, they should have submitted their resignations already - at the request of the president shortly following the inauguration.

However, that’s the way it would work inside my logical world view - which is nothing like Washington.

[lagomorph777]

44. According to others here, yes, OLC has been upgraded under Biden.

Now, they need to get to work trashing Trump's get-out-of-jail OLC memos.

[KS Toronado]

18. Every day something new pops up

that proves all Rs have left is to lie, cheat or steal to hold on to power.
No real policy issues that actually help us out.

[Grasswire2]

21. and somebody smarter than TFG put this all in place.

So many pieces to the overthrowing of the government, even aside from the coup.

Bannon's goal was/is to shutter the administrative government.

Wrenches thrown in many gears. Someone had a comprehensive, detailed plot to destroy America.

Look at all the different people who were put into jobs to deliberately gum things up.

[KS Toronado]

24. "somebody smarter than TFG".......Putler?

[Grasswire2]

46. Federalist Society.

Elites. Circumventing the Constitution, going where no one ever thought to go.

[tirebiter]

19. Any updates?

Any clarification? Anything?

[Grasswire2]

20. wikipedia on Stephen Engel.

Engel was born on June 29, 1974, in New Hyde Park, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City.[1] He was raised in Port Washington, New York and graduated as valedictorian from Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in 1992, earning a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1996.[1][6] From 1996–1997, Engel was a Knox Fellow at University of Cambridge.[1][7][8] He was awarded a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2000,[1] and then clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, followed by a clerkship for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.[1][9][3]

Early career
Engel practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis from 2002 through 2006[1] before serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration from 2006 through 2009.[1] In June 2009, Engel became a partner at Dechert, an international law firm.[7][6][3]

Office of Legal Counsel
On January 31, 2017, the White House announced that President Donald Trump intended to nominate Engel to serve as the Assistant Attorney General heading the Office of Legal Counsel.[4][2] Engel's nomination was opposed by U.S. Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war who was tortured while in captivity. McCain cited Engel's involvement in commenting on and reviewing one of the so-called "Torture memos" that signed off on six different "enhanced interrogation techniques."[10] Various human rights groups expressed concerns about Engel's nomination, also citing his involvement with the July 20, 2007, memo authored by Steven G. Bradbury, then-head of the OLC.[11] The Senate Judiciary Committee received support for the nomination from former Attorneys General Mukasay and Gonzales, other former senior executive branch officials, and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the City of New York.[12] Engel was confirmed by a 51–47 vote, largely along party lines with one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia), voting in favor of confirmation.[13]

In November 2017, Engel issued an opinion supporting the President’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as the Acting Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Board under the Vacancies Reform Act.[14]

In April 2018, Engel approved airstrikes launched by President Trump against facilities associated with Syria’s chemical-weapons program without congressional authorization.[15] In March 2019, Engel issued a memorandum to Attorney General William Barr making the determination that the evidence laid out in the Mueller report did not support the conclusion that then-President Trump committed obstruction of justice.[16]

In May 2019, Engel issued an opinion concluding that the former White House Counsel, Don McGahn, was immune from compelled congressional testimony.[17] The House Judiciary Committee challenged that decision, and Engel’s opinion was rejected by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was later nominated by Joe Biden to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson’s opinion was twice reversed by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit.[18]

In June 2019, Engel issued an OLC opinion supporting the Justice Department's decision not to release Donald Trump's tax returns.[19]

In September 2019, Engel authored the OLC opinion[20] of the Justice Department to not forward the Trump–Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint[21] to Congress. The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency concluded that Engel's opinion had a "chilling effect on effective oversight" and was "wrong as a matter of law and policy"; urging him to withdraw or modify it.[22][23][24] Engel responded that the opinion had simply applied the law as it was written and that it did not construe the statutory provisions protecting whistleblowers.[25]


Engel's November 3, 2019 letter
In a letter dated November 3, 2019, Engel argued that White House advisors have "absolute immunity" from being subpoenaed to testify in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[26][27][28]

On September 9, 2020, President Donald Trump identified Engel among a list of potential future nominees to the Supreme Court.[29]

In January 2021, after then-President Donald Trump's re-election bid failed, Trump undertook a number of unprecedented acts to overturn the 2020 election, including a pressure campaign to request the Justice Department to falsely claim fraud and invalidate the results of the election in key battleground states. Engel, along with others, refused to carry out the scheme and reportedly threatened to resign if he replaced Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey B. Clark in an effort to overturn the election.[30][31][32][33][34]

[alwaysinasnit]

23. So, a "memo" takes precedence over the policy that "no one is above the law?"

JFC

[wishstar]

28. Is that like their policy of not interfering in elections (that Comey ignored with Hillary probe)

Meadows is a private citizen now and the matters of January 6 should be considered campaign and election related, not official White House presidential duties subject to normal procedure of WH privilege.

[Grasswire2]

30. evidently so

and the policy of DoJ not appearing political.

Partisans on DoJ have been making up de facto laws in the form of opinion memos. These memos stand in for laws without being considered and voted by Congress.

The system is rigged.

Rigged.

Even under a Democratic president?? We don't know. But we do know that previous rigging is still guiding actions at DoJ. And no one on our side is challenging that rigging.

A democracy? Hm.

[lagomorph777]

31. Holy crap. DOJ needs a thorough cleaning.

[SmallFry]

40. Here is the guy who replaced Engel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_H._Schroeder

[lagomorph777]

43. MUCH better!

[Grasswire2]

47. thank you for adding that. nt

[jalan48]

35. A set of rules adopted by fiat and accepted by both parties?

[SmallFry]

38. These memo's are guidance.

Not the end all be all. It's very simple to send the same query back to the OLC.

At some point people will begin to recognize the words maybe, possibly, could be, may be, potentially, etc. when coming from Twitter aficionados and the like.

[Ohio Joe]

42. Looks to me you are reading in things Litman did not say...

"So Harry Litman sez there are other "secret" memos that prohibit DoJ from indicting coup actors"

Litman is talking about the potential for indicting Meadows for not responding to the congressional subpoena... Not for being part of the coup. Two very different things.

Also... Litman does not say this is a definite reason... He say it "may" be a reason giving them "pause".

Another reason would be this:

The answer is clear. Doing so will make any ongoing investigation far more difficult.

We can see why that’s true from the Bannon case. Bannon has already used his contempt prosecution as a means to obtain evidence about an ongoing obstruction investigation implicating Trump.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/07/why-to-delay-a-mark-meadows-indictment-bannon-is-using-his-contempt-prosecution-to-monitor-the-ongoing-january-6-investigation/

The argument seems to be to just prosecute Meadows for not going in front of congress and taking the fifth and who cares that it would give him access to evidence in prosecuting the actual insurrection. Contempt charges can easily be added later, giving up what they have would be very damaging getting TFG and everyone else in his inner circle.

The contempt charge has a max of 1 year... He would probably get much less and maybe even only probation. Why throw away everything else to get that now when it can still be added on later?