What Jurisdiction Does The OLC Have?.....

[TomSlick]

1. It doesn't have jurisdiction as such.

The Office of Legal Counsel is, as strange as it sounds, the lawyers for the Justice Department. The OLC concluded in the Nixon years that a sitting President could not be indicted. The OLC memo has no legal effect. It is nothing more than a matter of Justice Department policy. Moreover, the policy determination of the OLC memo is always subject to change.

All of that being said, since the Justice Department is always under the control of the Attorney General who, in turn, is appointed by the President, it is unlikely that any Justice Department will ever indict a sitting President.

We have hit an inherent flaw in the system. The Attorney General is a political appointee. The independence of the Justice Department is a matter of norms - not laws. When an administration does not respect venerable norms, the system falls apart. If an Attorney General's loyalty is to a President instead of the Constitution or the rule of law, the name "Department of Justice," is a cruel misnomer.