Interview

New York Times: Proponents of Post-Trump Curbs on Executive Power Prepare New Push

September 9, 2021

Presidential Reform Project co-chairs Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith gave comments to New York Times correspondent Charlie Savage announcing the launch of the Presidential Reform Project and discussing the project’s urgency.

House Democrats are not the only White House allies urging the Biden team to accept new curbs. Among the outside advocates joining them is Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden’s personal lawyer.

Last year, Mr. Bauer, who was a White House counsel in the Obama administration, joined with Jack L. Goldsmith, a senior official in the Bush Justice Department, to write a book proposing dozens of curbs on executive power called “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.” This week, the pair formed an organization called the Presidential Reform Project.

With funding from philanthropic foundations, they are hiring a bipartisan team to lobby Congress. On Wednesday, they sent two letters to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland urging him to take certain steps to protect the Justice Department from politicization and to rescind three Bush-era memos that “take an extreme, indefensible view of presidential war powers.”

“We have the time, but not much time, for progress on reform before midterm politics and then the 2024 election cycle makes it harder,” Mr. Bauer said. “It is critically important to move some reforms in the coming months to achieve momentum for this program.”

Keep reading at The New York Times.