George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley joined a chorus of critics arguing President Obama "absolutely broke the law" by not giving Congress 30 days notice before releasing the 5 Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo.
President Obama attached a signing statement to the National Defense Authorization Act contending the administration must have "flexibility, among other things, to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers."
"The law says clearly he has to notify Congress and give 30 days," Turley said. "And what the president is essentially arguing is I'm interpreting that law to mean exactly the opposite of what it says, that I have the right not to do that."
Oddly, the Obama administration switched legal justifications in the last few days as to why it circumvented Congress. Over the weekend, the administration made a Constitutional argument that the 30 day notification requirement impinged on Article II (Executive branch) powers necessitated by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's emergency situation. Today however, the National Security Council issued a statement arguing the administration actually complied with the law and that "the notification requirement should be construed not to apply to this unique set of circumstances."
Section 1035 of the NDAA states "The Secretary of Defense shall notify the appropriate committees of Congress of a determination of the Secretary [...] not later than 30 days before the transfer or release of the [detainee]."
Turley contended the statute and the notification requirement is clear. "They're arguing you never intended to limit us in this way," he said. "When I look at this law I don't see this leeway given to the president."
Moreover, Turley ripped President Obama for using a signing statement to sidestep a law he didn't like, something candidate Obama ran against in 2008.
Obama said at the time "The problem with [the Bush] administration is that it has attached signing statements to legislation in an effort to change the meaning of the legislation, to avoid enforcing certain provisions of the legislation that the president does not like."
"I think the backlash you’ve seen afterwards explains why notification was not given," Turley said. "This is a very controversial deal and they did not want to bring Congress into the loop."