What are Trump and the Justice Department Hiding?

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https://www.dcreport.org/

A Public-Interest Group Files a Lawsuit for Secret Legal Opinions Guiding White House Executive Actions

By Sarah Okeson

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked a federal judge to issue an injunction ordering the Department of Justice and the Office of Legal Counsel to release all formal written opinions the Office of Legal Counsel has created and will create in the future. The lawsuit also asks for all indexes to the opinions.

The nonprofit, founded in 2003 to monitor government integrity, filed a similar lawsuit in 2013 against the Obama administration. The most recent lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in the District of Columbia, seeks the “secret law” behind the Trump administration’s decisions. The Office of Legal Counsel has previously said that the opinions are confidential.

“This lawsuit is part of a long effort to give the public access to these vital opinions,” Noah Bookbinder, CREW executive director, said in a statement. “The law is clear that the government must release this secret law to the public, and we are asking the court to enforce the law since the Department of Justice will not.”

The Office of Legal Counsel, which gets its authority to tell the president and others what’s law from the Judiciary Act of 1789, has provided opinions on subjects such as immigration and spying on citizens. The infamous Bybee memo provided the legal justification for waterboarding.

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