Maurer: OLC memo on boats strikes is 'bullshit'

 Dan Maurer of Lawfare describes the difference between a lie and “bullshit” in the context of the military boat strikes which continued yesterday with six more deaths:

The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has become a flashpoint in the public debate over the Trump administration’s compliance with federal laws, the Constitution, and foundational rule-of-law principles. The Justice Department’s resistance to publishing the OLC opinion on the lawfulness of the military’s counternarcotic boat strikes is one such lingering controversy. But lack of transparency is not always the problem. On Dec. 23, 2025, the OLC provided its opinion on the “Proposed War Department Operation to Support Law Enforcement Efforts in Venezuela” (called “Operation Absolute Resolve”) to the legal adviser for the National Security Council.

This particular OLC memorandum—more specifically, the argument it makes based on an interpretation of law and many now redacted facts—contains “bullshit”: in the technical sense of the term first described by philosopher Harry Frankfurt in his classic book, On Bullshit. Frankfurt’s chief accomplishment is lexicographically and conceptually distinguishing a lie from bullshit, an approach that has been applied since in many disciplines, including ethics, international relations, and rhetoric.

Inspired by other legal scholars’ use of Frankfurt’s “bullshit” concept to address serious controversies, including constitutional interpretation, I aim to apply Frankfurt’s definitional clarity to another legal methodology target: national security-related OLC opinions that rely extensively on previous OLC opinions as support for their key propositions. This matters because those key propositions in turn result in legal conclusions aligned with known policy preferences of the president. As Michael Smith put it: “Bullshit is worth calling out wherever it may be.”

This piece takes up that challenge and finds that “the President’s law firm” is as guilty of purveying bullshit as any other group of legal professionals. This is an especially dangerous practice for a government agency. It often results in a superficial legal argument that supports a presidential policy preference well known to the OLC, that may or may not reflect the “best view” of the law, and provides a veneer of authority masking its objectionable “truthiness.”

In the national security context, the danger of a bullshit OLC argument is elevated for four reasons: (a) The OLC’s influence and authority within the executive branch enables it to claim its own conclusions are quasi-precedential and conclusive unless the OLC, the attorney general, or the president chooses to override them (see this important law review article by Trevor Morrison, a former OLC attorney); (b) the actions analyzed frequently deal with life and death decisions involving the U.S. military; (c) the relevant facts are often classified and kept from public scrutiny; and (d) the decisions these OLC opinions validate often avoid judicial review.

 

Frankfurt defined “bullshit” as a fouler version of “humbug,” which Max Black defined as “short of lying,”  but a “deceptive misrepresentation ... of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes” and “especially by pretentious word or deed.” Frankfurt does not say “bullshit” is better or worse than a lie. In fact, the bullshit statement may actually be true. Rather, Frankfurt distinguishes its purveyors’ goals and methods. A lie is a deliberate statement of a falsehood. The speaker knows the statement to be false or at least thinks he knows. And the liar’s intent is to keep the listener or reader away from the truth of the matter via his deliberately false statement. Delivering an effective lie takes “craftsmanship.” But, unlike a liar, the bullshitter does not care if the statement is false, has no intent to lasso the listener or reader away from the truth, may accidentally be stating the truth, and may not even know if the statement is true or false. The bullshitter has a different objective:

[T]he bullshitter hides ... that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him …. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

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DOJ wants to screen prosecutor misconduct complaints before adjudicated by state disciplinary authorities

The US Department of Justice (DOJ)  introduced a proposed rule that would establish a formal procedure for reviewing complaints and allegations of professional misconduct against department attorneys before they are taken up by state disciplinary authorities, reported JuristNews.

The proposal, which comes amid increasing scrutiny of the department’s attorneys and their adherence to ethical obligations in implementing Trump administration policies, seeks to empower Attorney General Pam Bondi to request the suspension of state bar investigations until the Department of Justice conducts a review of any originating complaint. The department said the proposed rule reflects concerns about what it described as the increasing “weaponization” of bar complaints against government lawyers, including complaints filed by political activists against senior DOJ officials and career attorneys.

The department argued that such complaints risk interfering with the attorney general’s statutory responsibility under 28 U.S.C. 519 to supervise DOJ litigation and legal activities.

The proposal would amend 28 CFR Part 77 to allow the Attorney General to review allegations that a current or former DOJ attorney violated ethics rules while performing federal duties. Under the proposal, if a complaint is filed with a state, territorial, or District of Columbia bar disciplinary authority, the DOJ could request that the authority pause investigative steps requiring participation from the attorney until the department completes its review.

Hilary Gerzhoy, chair of the rules of professional conduct review committee for the District of Columbia Bar, said the proposal “is incredibly concerning, adding that it “is inconsistent with all precedents,” and that attorney discipline in Washington, DC, is conducted through an independent process overseen by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals rather than the federal government.

Public comments on the proposed rule will be accepted through April 6, 2026.

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Mangino discusses Ohio school's video game lawsuit on WFMJ-TV21

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Mangino discusses murder of new born on Law and Crime's Scandal

Watch my interview with Sierra  Gillespie host of "Scandal" on Law and Crime Network.

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The 'Iran War' may be remembered as the end of restraint on a president's use of the military

Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law professor and former senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, said President Trump’s unilateral launch of the Iran war may be remembered as the death of any pretense that law and executive branch lawyers can be counted on to meaningfully constrain a president who wants to use military force on his own, reported The New York Times.

“By using the military on such a large and dangerous scale with foreseeable U.S. casualties, this operation kills the idea of any effective legal constraint on the president’s use of force,” he said. “It’s been very close to dead for years, I think.”

In 2007, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued in a presidential candidate survey that presidents have no legitimate power to bomb another country without congressional authorization, unless the United States is about to be attacked. Senator Barack Obama said the same thing. But executive power can look different from the vantage point of the Oval Office.

Mr. Obama bombed Libya without authorization in 2011. And, running for president again in 2019, Mr. Biden argued that the Constitution empowered presidents to order limited military strikes on their own. In 2024, Mr. Biden ordered several large-scale strikes on Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen who were menacing Israel and shipping in the Red Sea.

Against that backdrop, Mr. Biden’s approach to Iran over time is instructive. In 2007, he had singled out an attack on the country as particularly dangerous and unpredictable, writing, “Let’s not kid ourselves: any military conflict with Iran is likely to become major.”

In 2019, he maintained that “any initiation of the use of force against Iran,” unless in response to an imminent attack, “could certainly result in a wide-scale conflict and constitute a ‘war’ in the constitutional sense that would require authorization by Congress.”

But as president in 2023, before he dropped out of the 2024 race, Mr. Biden sidestepped Iran in responding to a similarly worded survey.

Mr. Trump had already joined Israel last June in bombing Iranian nuclear sites, in what has become known as the 12-day war. Since then, he has unilaterally “determined” that the United States is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels, and launched a brief invasion of Venezuela to seize its president, Nicolás Maduro.

Now, without going to Congress, Mr. Trump has joined Israel in killing Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials at the start of a massively larger bombing campaign that he said he intended to last “four to five weeks.” He has urged Iranians to rise up for a regime change.

Ahead of the operation, Mr. Trump made scant effort to persuade lawmakers and the public that such a war had become necessary. He delivered no Oval Office address and barely mentioned Iran in his State of the Union speech, a sharp divergence from how past presidents sought to build a case for wars they wanted to launch.

Those past campaigns have drawn accusations of spin and deception, as when the George W. Bush administration’s warnings about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction proved false after the war began. But even propaganda is a backhanded nod to democracy — an implicit acknowledgment that buy-in from Congress and the public matters when it comes to taking the country to war.

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Florida carries out another execution

The 5th Execution of 2026

Billy Leon Kearse convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop was executed on March 3, 2026 in Florida, becoming the third person put to death by the state this year after a record 19 executions in 2025, according to The Associated Press.

Kearse, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was condemned for the 1991 shooting death of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish.

The execution started just after 6 p.m. When a warden asked Kearse if he had any final words, he said all he could do was ask for forgiveness from Parrish’s family.

“To his family, I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done,” Kearse said. “There is no way I can ever repay that.”

More than a dozen family members and police officers gathered to observe the execution.

Kearse twitched briefly after the lethal drugs began entering his system but stopped moving several minutes later. It was another quarter of an hour before a medic entered the room and pronounced Kearse dead.

After the execution, Parrish’s widow, Mirtha Busbin, said she has found peace.

“It’s been a long, long 35 years,” said Busbin. “We didn’t win anything though; we lost another life, but we did get justice.”

Busbin, who works as a victim advocate for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, said she didn’t expect Kearse to apologize, but she did appreciate it.

“I can forgive him, I can move on,” Busbin said. “It was the right thing to do.”

Court records show Parrish had pulled over Kearse for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January of that year. After Kearse couldn’t produce a valid driver’s license, Parrish ordered Kearse out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him when a struggle ensued.

Kearse grabbed Parrish’s firearm during the struggle and fired 14 times, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor, prosecutors said. A taxi driver heard the shots and called for help on the officer’s radio, but Parrish died after being rushed to a hospital. Police used license plate information called in by Parrish during the traffic stop to arrest Kearse at his home.

Kearse was initially convicted of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm and sentenced to death in 1991. The Florida Supreme Court later found the trial court failed to give jurors certain information about aggravating circumstances and ordered a new sentencing. Kearse again drew the death penalty in 1997.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, far outpacing Alabama, South Carolina and Texas which each held five executions last year. The 19 Florida executions that year outstripped the previous high totals of eight in both 1984 and 2014.

Besides the three Florida executions to date this year, Texas and Oklahoma have each executed one person each so far in 2026.

Two more Florida executions are scheduled soon, starting with Michael Lee King on March 17 for the 2008 kidnap and killing of a mother of two. Former police officer James Duckett is set to be executed March 31 for the 1987 killing of an 11-year-old girl.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Hours before Tuesday’s execution, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Kearse’s final appeal without comment. And last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Kearse.

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CREATORS: 'Partisan Political Theater' Disguised as a Congressional Investigation

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
March 3, 2026

Last week, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State, one-time democrat nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, testified under oath before the House Select Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The depositions took place behind closed doors in Chappaqua, N.Y. Bill Clinton was deposed for 4 hours and 33 minutes and Hillary Clinton testified for 4 hours and 35 minutes. The Committee recently released video of the depositions.

The Epstein scandal has pulled in a number of prominent men from around the world. They include Britain's Prince Andrew; Elon Musk; Steven Bannon; Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Group; Steven Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants; Casey Wasserman, president of the 2028 Summer Olympics; Ehud Barak, former Israel prime minster; Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary; Howard Lutnick, current Secretary of Commerce; billionaire Sergey Brin; Mirosalav Lajcak, former Slovak foreign minister and of course President Donald Trump.

Yet none of these men have been deposed by the House Select Committee. The GOP-run committee chose to depose the former Democratic president and his spouse, the former 2016 Democratic nominee for president. Her opponent — Donald Trump.

Never mind that references to President Trump are everywhere in the Epstein files. The New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and other related words and phrases in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Department of Justice.

Never mind that no former president has ever been compelled to testify before Congress. Bill Clinton and his wife were hauled before Congress when there are so many more compelling targets of this investigation.

Hillary Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in "partisan political theater." Her written statement to the committee emphasized that she "had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that."

She accused the committee of compelling her testimony "fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, to distract attention from President Trump's actions and cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers."

Bill Clinton said in his written testimony that he "had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing."

"No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos. I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn't see. I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn't do. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong."

So, when will the Select Committee have President Trump testify?

When asked about the Epstein files on a recent flight back from Mar-a-Logo on Air Force One, Trump responded, "You know, I've been totally exonerated on Epstein. And it's really interesting because they've (Clintons) been pulled in. Think of it. They've been pulled in. Clinton and many other Democrats have been pulled in."

Trump feigns surprise that the Clintons have "been pulled in." This is the point: On nearly every topic, the President suspends reality. He is "shocked, shocked" that the GOP-controlled Congress has pulled the Clintons, Democrats, into the Epstein scandal.

According to The Hill, Democrats are saying that by compelling Clinton's testimony, the dynamic between Congress and the president has changed. Democrats are calling for the same standard for President Trump.

"Trump defied, as all of you know, a congressional subpoena with the Jan. 6 Committee. He said, 'presidents don't have to testify,'" Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said, according to The Hill. "Now we have the Clinton rule, which is that presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena, and that means that Donald Trump needs to come before our committee."

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book, "The Executioner's Toll," 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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