The White House Office of Legal Counsel is a group of lawyers who work for the president and advise him and the executive agencies on legal issues. Their role came under scrutiny when certain individuals issued memos authorizing vast presidential powers in the war on terror, in particular with regard to authorizing aggressive interrogations which have since been called torture.
The White House Office of Legal Counsel is a group of lawyers who work for the president and advise him and the executive agencies on legal issues. Their role came under scrutiny when certain individuals issued memos authorizing vast presidential powers in the war on terror, in particular with regard to authorizing aggressive interrogations which have since been called torture.
The OLC is now putting old memos up on the web, and today they have released one written in August 2006 to the lawyers US Trade Representative concerning an issue in the softwood lumber dispute. Given how many lawyers have made careers off of this dispute, there’s got to be someone out there who will find this interesting.