Mark R. Weaver is a former Ohio deputy attorney general, a current prosecutor, media law advisor and crisis communications expert with decades of legal and political experience. Friday, Weaver joined OPN Editor-in-Chief Jack Windsor on The Windsor Report – broadcast on 98.9FM The Answer in Columbus, Ohio – to discuss Judge Paul Engelmayer’s order to restrain Elon Musk and his DOGE workers from combing through U.S. Treasury Department records in search of government inefficiency.
Weaver expanded the scope of focus from Engelmayer to other judges and cases that seek to halt the power Trump and his administration have as established by the U.S. Constitution. Hear the discussion between Weaver and Windsor here: https://www.theohiopressnetwork.com/news/ohio/listen-eighth-grade-civics-prove-no-constitutional-power-for-judges-to-stop-musk-trump-doge/article_a87c21a4-ebec-11ef-a17a-2f3dc5f0b6ff.html
The full transcript of the interview is here:
Windsor:
He is the former Deputy Attorney General of Ohio, author of A Wordsmith’s Work; he's a current prosecutor, media law expert, crisis communication expert, and friend of the show - Mark R. Weaver. Welcome back. How are you today, sir?
Weaver:
Great afternoon. Good to talk to you, my friend.
Windsor:
Absolutely. Always. Good to have you. We talked earlier in the week, a little bit offline, and I was eager to have you on today because I'm kind of miffed at this judge who is saying that President Trump doesn't have the authority to go through - or actually to appoint someone to go through - the Trasury records and payables and payments and all of these things, and I just wanted to get your take on it. You're pretty astute, legally. Am I off base here, or is this judge crazy?
Weaver:
Well, it's true. I went to law school, and that I taught law school for many years, and I still teach graduate school, but you don't need that kind of education to know eighth grade civics – Article I gives legislative power to Congress. Article two gives executive power to the president – that’s one person. Now, the president's pretty busy and can't do all the work of the federal government, so he delegates that power to other people on his behalf. He has responsibility, of course, buck stops with him, but that's why we have all these federal employees who are doing what the president cannot do, which means he can pick anybody he likes to go do the job that he's allowed to do. And if that person's name is Elon Musk or even a 19-year-old programmer working for Elon Musk, they all are using Article II power to do what they're allowed to do.
Windsor:
So you probably read the judge's decision, and I think it was a temporary order. Is there any legal basis to what that judge is trying to claim as a reason for the stoppage?
Weaver:
Yeah, I've not seen a good constitutional argument yet. I've worked with and argued in front of many judges in my career, a few of them fancy themselves outside their lane. If they could run the world, the world would be a better place, at least in their mind. And so judges might say, well, I would run the executive branch differently. Okay, big boy or big girl, take off the robe, put on a suit, go run for president. And when you become president, you can run it the way you want. The only way a judge can stop what the president is doing is to point to the section in the Constitution, or a very specific federal law that says that the President is violating something. I've yet to see it.
Windsor:
So I guess what I'm confused about, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm drinking the party Kool-Aid, I do believe that Trump in his election, has a mandate from the American people to do many things. One of them is to slim down the government, to stop overspending to well, many other things. But that would include exactly what Elon Musk and the Doge Boys are doing, wouldn't it?
Weaver:
I like that. I was in a rock band in college, and we opened for the Doge Boys, as I recall, great rock and roll band, - ladies and gentlemen, the Doge Boys, kidding. I did play a band, but I didn't open for the Doge Boys. Anyway, there's two arguments here. There's the political argument that you just made, which is the President has a mandate, let him do his job. And that's fine. We can disagree about what the mandate is, the size of the mandate. But what we can't disagree with is that the President has all the power of Article II. When you are carrying out the laws, that's what the President does, when you're executing the laws, that's what the executive branch does, you are within that power. Now, if you do something that the Constitution says you can't do - like a bill of attainder - which I guess the legislature would do that, or maybe if he signs the executive order saying “tomorrow, the official religion of the United States is Methodism,” that would violate the establishment clause. So you have to run afoul of another part of the Constitution before you should be in trouble with a court. And I've not seen Donald Trump do that.
Windsor:
So when we hear that this is a constitutional crisis, because you have a billionaire who was not elected, you have a 19-year-old who is labeled an expert when they're combing through all of our personal data points in the federal database, is that a constitutional crisis? And why are they claiming? And when I say they, there's a swath of people in the press and certainly the progressives and the Democrat Party, they're kind of all, I guess, on the same team, that's what they're claiming. What are they talking about?
Weaver:
Well, it's certainly not a constitutional crisis, and it's remarkable that we didn't hear this term constitutional crisis in 1993 when a fellow named Bill Clinton, you can Google him if you don't know who he was, he was president and Al Gore, another person you could look up if you'd like.
Windsor:
He created the internet.
Weaver:
He said he was reinventing government in news accounts from the time they bragged that they were going to cut 650,000 federal employees.
Windsor:
Wow.
Weaver:
17% of the government, they said they were going to cut and $108 billion, which was worth a lot more money back then. Nobody accused them of a constitutional crisis. He actually was cheered on by many other Democrats saying, wow, good for him. Look at him being a good steward of federal government. This is just because it's Donald Trump who's doing it. People are mad that he won. That's okay. You're allowed to be mad - being stamping foot about him. Winning is perfectly human. But what you shouldn't be doing is inventing legal theories where somehow him using Article II Power violates the Constitution.
Windsor:
Doesn't it really come down to two really simple things? They moved my cheese. I mean, these government workers now, their cheese has been moved, and so they're going to maybe have to go find something somewhere else in order to make some money. And oh, by the way, their pals in the press might be out in the cold for a little while. I mean, isn't that really what this amounts to?
Weaver:
Yeah, I'll accept the metaphor. They moved my government cheese when my special interest mouse friends were eating it. Yeah. Listen, I respect, we all should respect that. Congress gets to write the laws, of course. But we should all respect that the President gets to execute those laws in a way that is unique to the philosophy he ran on. And those people who are mad at Donald Trump are mad at him because he's doing what he promised he would do. I think it's fair for people to be mad at Joe Biden for doing things he said that he wouldn't do. “I won't pardon Hunter,” and then he promises, then he goes and Pardons Hunter. And this case, Donald Trump is doing what he said he would do. He was transparent and honest with the voters. He's doing it. He's within his rights in the Constitution. This is more just people angry about how the election turned out, and there really isn't a legal basis for their argument.
Windsor:
Only about a minute here, I'm going to stick with this, because everything that I'm seeing helps me believe that this might be the most transformative administration I've ever experienced. Do you think that what is afoot, what is underway will come to fruition? And if so, is this going to be massively transformational?
Weaver:
I think so. I was a very young man in my twenties when I was appointed in the Reagan administration at the end. And so I was spokesman for the Reagan Justice Department, and I always thought that Reagan would've been the greatest president of my lifetime, certainly in his achievements. And he has been up until now. And although I don't think Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan have a lot in common, personally, I think the level of achievements we're seeing from Donald Trump already exceed what Reagan did. And of course, Reagan had eight years.
Windsor:
Yeah, it, it's going to be an exciting time. It is an incredible time to be alive. He's Mark R. Weaver. Follow him on X at Mark R. Weaver. About 20 seconds here, Mar. Anything you want to leave our listeners with today?
Weaver:
There's a lot more to come and the place to hear it is The Windsor Report, because other people, this is where I come to find out a great take on the news. So thanks for having me back, Jack.
Windsor:
Mark, it's always an honor and a pleasure. Keep doing what you're doing, brother. We'll talk to you next time.
Weaver:
Thanks. Bye-Bye.
Windsor:
Bye.
Soundbite:
That's the fact, Jack. That is the fact, Jack.
Windsor:
I mean, that's high praise from a really, really good dude. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for listening to the Windsor Report. Stay tuned. We're going to round third and head home next.