The Congressional Transparency Caucus will hold a briefing on Monday, February 10th, at 2 p.m. in the Longworth House Office Building, Room 1310.

Video of the briefing is available here:

Panelists included:

• Erica Newland, counsel for Protect Democracy, and former attorney adviser at the Office of Legal Counsel
• Elizabeth Hempowicz, director of public policy for the Project on Government Oversight
• Michael Stern, an attorney specializing in legal issues affecting Congress and former senior counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives. He blogs about congressional legal issues at Point of Order.

This briefing discussed the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which acts as a legal advisor to the President and all executive branch agencies, and how to increase transparency around OLC opinions.

OLC opinions are often not available for review by Congress or the public, which undermines our traditional lawmaking process. OLC opinions are responsible for critical interpretations of law at the heart of national controversies. These opinions concluded, for instance, that:

• A President’s advisors cannot be compelled to testify before Congress;
• Domestic surveillance is allowable despite the violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
• Congress may not obtain the President’s tax returns;
• A sitting President cannot be indicted.

You can RSVP to the event by emailing Hannah.Mansbach@mail.house.gov.