Laurence Tribe: Matthew Whitaker’s Appointment Is Unconstitutional

EXCERPT:

TRIBE: "The fundamental reason is that the U.S. Constitution in Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 makes it absolutely clear that a principal officer of the United States, that is somebody who exercises enough power so that he’s answerable only to the president cannot be appointed just by the president even if Congress were to authorize it, which it hasn't here, but must be appointed pursuant to the advice and consent of the Senate. The President has no power to circumvent that. Ironically, the President and, in fact, Matt Whitaker have been among the people who have argued that James Comey’s replacement, Robert Mueller needed Senate confirmation and couldn’t be appointed the way he was. That’s not true about Mueller because Mueller has a boss below the President. Mueller’s boss is Rosenstein. They are now trying to make Mueller’s boss a guy who was illegally appointed. I think when the Democrats take over the House, they should simply disregard everything that this pretender to the position of attorney general tries to do. He’s not Senate-confirmed and that makes his appointment unconstitutional. We shouldn’t get lost in technical details."