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Donald Trump continues to surround himself with his former (?) lawyers. On the day that former Trump lawyer and now Judge Emil Bove swore in former Trump lawyer and now AG Todd Blanche, the President named a new White House Counsel. It's former Trump lawyer Will Scharf. He replaces former Trump lawyer David Warrington, who is leaving for a job in the private sector (undoubtedly one that comes with more pay and less chance of being indicted).
White House Counsel is not a position of quite as much significance as the attorney generalship. However, that person does have the president's ear, presumably, and thus an opportunity to either encourage or discourage his worst impulses. An example of the former is John Ehrlichman, who was a key figure in the Watergate scandal. An example of the latter is Pat Cipollone, who resisted Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and who eventually served as a key witness before the 1/6 Committee.
It is hard to know where, on this spectrum, Scharf will land. It is not good news that he is yet another of the parade of former Trump lawyers. Further, his work for the administration, before being promoted yesterday, basically involved two things. The first was working on executive orders, particularly the outlandish ones, and trying to explain to Trump what each one of them does. The second was serving as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, which is the group that has tried to muscle through the Arc de Trump, the space for Trump's balls, etc.
So, a lot of signs point in the direction of "Ehrlichman-style enabler." However, The New York Times' Maggie Haberman knows the inner workings of this administration about as well as anyone, having written a book on the subject. And she says that while Scharf is undoubtedly a loyalist, he does have limits to what he will support. In particular, he pushed back hard (and successfully) against Stephen Miller when Miller was arguing for invocation of the Insurrection Act and suspension of habeas corpus.
"Not willing to support the imposition of martial law" is a pretty thin silver lining to this particular cloud. But, in contrast to Trump v1.0, there is nobody who gets hired in this White House who is legitimately independent. So, a lawyer with at least a couple of red lines is probably about the best that can be hoped for. (Z)