One top former legal adviser to Obama, Dawn Johnsen, called the accounts of the White House’s handling of the matter “disturbing.” 

“There may be a precedent for this, but I can’t think of one,” said Robert Chesney, a University of Texas law professor who specializes in national security law. “This is not the way the process is supposed to work.” 

For decades, Chesney and other legal scholars said, legal and constitutional questions within the government have been resolved by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Just last year, a six-page Justice Department memo described OLC’s mission as providing “controlling advice” to executive branch officials on questions of law.