Trump’s bid for the presidency — and his choice of Matt Gaetz — is just the latest round in a 52-year battle
In quick succession, the president was elected Donald Trump named Matt Gaetz is his choice for attorney general, Todd Blanche as deputy AG, and Bill McGinley as White House advisor. Gaetz and Blanche needed Senate approval; McGinley does not. Also exploited by Trump: Emil Bove, Blanche will be second in command, and D. John Sauer, choice to head the solicitor general’s office.
Regardless of the merits of these very different attorneys for these positions (Blanche, Bove and Sauer all represented Trump in recent trials), there is a common thread running through their choices. Trump clearly wants lawyers — some with backgrounds as prosecutors — who might be inclined to take a more aggressive stance on executive power and apply what is loosely called “theory unified governance” has been developing in one form or another since the time of Richard Nixon. at the office.
That initiative seeks to minimize limits—barriers—that might limit what a president can do. For example, when it comes to exercising prosecutorial power, many proponents of the unified executive theory see virtually no limitations on the president’s discretion in targeting those for prosecution. This power consolidation dynamic is consistent with July’s extravaganza. Ruling of the Supreme Courtwhich held that a president is protected by “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for conduct “within his exclusive constitutional authority.”
A brief history might help clarify what we’re seeing with Trump’s nomination of Gaetz and company. (By most accounts, Christopher Wray, FBI director, will not serve in Trump’s new term.)
The story begins in 1972. After Nixon won his second presidential term. mudslidehe asked all his top officials to submit their resignations. He will decide who to keep and who to let go. At the same time, he sent chief of staff Bob Haldeman and top domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman to Camp David to conduct a comprehensive restructuring of the executive branch. Nixon’s goal was twofold: to make those in the executive branch directly responsible and report to the president, and to shrink the oversight powers of congressional committees of executive agencies and branches .
The goal is to make professional officials responsive to the White House. From the perspective of entrenched civil servants – today sometimes pejoratively called civil servants in a monolithic “deep state” – they can wait to act on government directives. However, Nixon wanted his agenda to be implemented right here and now.
Then came Watergate revelationsa scandal erupted after the bungled June 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex, orchestrated by Nixon campaign operatives. Before long, damning stories appeared in the press that Nixon officials – and “dirty crooks” working with the Presidential Reelection Committee – were behind the efforts. discredited Nixon’s political opponents. Revelations about the plans, unearthed by Washington Post and others, sent shock waves throughout the capital. Things got worse after Nixon was reelected and the Watergate burglars were brought to trial in January 1973. In a twist, Nixon fired or accepted the resignations of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, House counsel White John Dean, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst in April. Amid this chaos, Nixon’s planned restructuring efforts stalled.
His top advisers, in full damage control mode, attempted to cover up their role and the president’s knowledge of a series of illegal activities. The scandal gradually grew and overshadowed Nixon’s landslide victory due to a number of factors: the slow revelations during the Senate hearings, the discovery of a secret House recording system White (recorded the crime in real time) and the firing of the police. Special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Nixon resigned in August 1974 before he could be formally impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. In time, dozens of people would be charged with Nixon-related crimes, including by his former attorney general, John Mitchell, in the case that historian Garrett Graff called it “one of the biggest federal criminal cases in a decade of heavy criminalization.”
The consequence was a concerted move to ensure that abuses of presidential power, like those that occurred on Nixon’s watch, would not be allowed to happen again. Reformers wanted to create a separation between the president and the attorney general, along with the Justice Department. Norms and standards was developed at the DOJ to ensure that the Department worked independently on prosecutions to avoid a Watergate-like atmosphere in which Nixon’s attorney general, Kleindienst, and Henry Petersen, who headed DOJ Criminal Divisioninfluenced the Watergate investigation by alerting the president behind the scenes about what was happening with key cooperating witnesses, such as White House counsel Dean.
But over the years, the unified executive theory has evolved, advancing the agenda of those who believe the president should have largely unchecked power. Constitutional scholars, conservative thinkers and others see benefits in expanding the power of the holder of the Oval Office. For example, under Ronald Reagan, Attorney General Edwin Meese support that view The president has broad scope in the exercise of executive power.
