The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday blasted legal arguments promulgated by President Trump that assert Robert Mueller’s appointment as the special counsel in charge of the federal Russia investigation was unconstitutional.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with lawyers making inventive and novel arguments on behalf of their clients, or on behalf of causes or people they support, if the arguments are well-grounded in law and fact, even if the arguments ultimately turn out to be wrong,” George Conway wrote in a lengthy blog post for Lawfare.
“But the ‘constitutional’ arguments made against the special counsel do not meet that standard and had little more rigor than the tweet that promoted them,” he continued.
Conway, a lawyer who was once shortlisted as a possible candidate for Trump’s U.S. solicitor general, said “a good guess” as to where Trump first learned of constitutional criticisms of Mueller is in a series of opinion pieces written by Steven Calabresi, a conservative legal scholar and co-founder of the Federalist Society, in May. The president then tweeted about them in June.
In the articles, Calabresi lays out why he believes that Mueller’s probe is unconstitutionally “null and void” because his selection specifically violates the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause and the separation of powers doctrine more generally.
But Conway on Monday countered that “there is no serious argument” that Mueller’s job under the Justice Department’s own regulations infringes either of those principles.
“Such a lack of rigor, sadly, has been a disturbing trend in much of the politically charged public discourse about the law lately, and one that lawyers — regardless of their politics — owe a duty to abjure,” Conway added.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee, chose Mueller, a former FBI director, on May 17, 2017, to lead the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.
But as pressure mounts as a result of the probe, Trump tweeted on June 4 that Mueller’s appointment was “totally unconstitutional.”
“Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!” he wrote.
The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018
This is not the first time Conway has been critical of Trump, despite his wife’s high-profile role within his administration.
He took a veiled shot at Trump in May for repaying his personal attorney Michael Cohen the $130,000 he gave to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement, suggesting it flouted Federal Election Commission rules.
In March, Conway also said it was “flabbergasting” that a top lawyer for Trump would consider pardons for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Lawfare was co-founded by Benjamin Wittes, a friend of former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump last year.
