There are no concepts

"Obama is friend, but the truth is more expensive." Under such a sparkling heading, Russian Newspaper published an interview with US Minister Eric Holder, who was taken from him by the deputy general director of ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman.

This text makes a strange impression, starting with the title. It is enough to imagine how the General Prosecutor Chaika says, proudly wrapping himself in the toga: "Putin is my friend, but the truth is more expensive." The phrase is unnatural and ambiguous, right? But the holder does not say anything like that. It was so in the "Russian newspaper" that understood him.

Of these short-sightedness from mutual misunderstanding, the whole conversation consists of revealing the features of the legal consciousness of the Russian journalist-official.

Holder’s position is called in English Attorney General - “Prosecutor General”. He stands at the head of the minting of justice and is a member of the office, that is, represents the executive branch of power together with the heads of other key federal departments. It is not clear to the interviewer where the prosecutor’s office took place in America, and he asks: “How historically this combination of posts has developed? And what are its advantages?”

Holder does not hear this misunderstanding, does not represent another structure of the law enforcement system and therefore diligently explains that it has a great responsibility, but the powers are also large.

In fact, the prosecutor’s office is simply not needed from the Ministry of Justice, it is atavism of the Soviet era. After the great judicial reforms of 1864 in Russia, just like in the USA, there was no independent prosecutor's office, it was part of the Ministry of Justice. The Soviet, and now the Russian prosecutor’s office is a surrounding control body whose activity no one controls. You can not complain about the prosecutor - only to a higher prosecutor. The main evil of the current status of the prosecutor's office is the function of general supervision of the implementation of laws. Within the framework of this function, the prosecutor has almost unlimited powers and has the right to verify when he pleases, without waiting for applications for violation of the rule of law ( section III of the Federal Law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation").

The American Ministry of Justice is an independent department. This is also not able to understand this guzman and therefore asks: "And who is the last word for?" The phrase "Higher Authority is the American people" does not satisfy him, and he tells the interlocutor the correct answer: "Well, probably also the president." And then he carries complete nonsense: “And how does it see me, your main load is the main legal adviser to the president. You have a lot in common with him. Both love basketball, play yourself ... How are your professional relations with the president? Do you work only on his instructions or sometimes offer something yourself?”

The analogy with basketball, apparently, should mean that the president gives the Prosecutor General PAS, and the prosecutor throws the ball into the basket. Or vice versa. In general, a game in the same team.

But Eric Holder does not catch the hint: "I do not work for him, but for the American people. And he understands that the Ministry of Justice is best independent. And therefore he does not treat instructions to me ... and he cannot pick up the phone and give me some instructions."

Further, it comes to the ratio between federal laws and state laws. Mikhail Gusman represents this to himself this way: "And what should an ordinary citizen in Texas, in Arizona or, for example, in Pennsylvania, be guided by federal laws or local?" And again, Eric Holder is unable to explain anything. And the point is that the states and federal authorities have different jurisdiction. The subjects of the federation delegated the Center some powers listed in the Constitution, and they left everything else by default. There is a list of federal crimes - for example, terrorism, espionage, corruption - according to which all procedural actions are carried out by federal prosecutors and federal courts in the field, while, say, the murder or rape will hold prosecutors and state courts. The highest instance in such cases is the Supreme Court of the state. And no vertical. This is what the offender should be “navigable”. In cases where a conflict of federal law and the state law arises, the parties apply to the US Supreme Court, which resolves the conflict in accordance with the letter of the Constitution. The federal government is now and then suits the governments of the States and often lose these lawsuits.

Actually, Eric Holder is a conflict figure. He is often accused of excessive politicization of purely legal issues (the minister must guard the law, not a political course) and excessive loyalty to the president. Recently, Barack Obama has incurred angry criticism. The US Supreme Court listened to the case of the constitutionality of health reform. The plaintiffs in it are the governments of 25 states. From the replicas and questions of judges, the impression was that the cup of the scales of Themis is in favor of the abolition of the reform law. The President considered it possible and necessary to comment on the course of the debate - they say, it is wrong that "a group of non -chosen people is able to cancel the action of the properly compiled and adopted law." Obama was reminded that the Supreme Court has been doing this for more than two hundred years. Holder tried to justify the president , but did it extremely awkwardly.

So Holder, like many of his predecessors, is not ideal in the sense of independence from the head of the executive branch. But in comparison with the servility of our state lawyers, he is at an unattainable height. It is not known whether Holder knows at least from newspapers about the state of law and order in Russia, but before his visit to Moscow, he says that he intends to "exchange experience" and see what we ourselves can learn from Russian colleagues. " God forbid him to gain such experience! Let's hope that this is just a politeness formula.

And finally, the question, for which, perhaps, the interview was started: would the United States agree to transfer to Russia to serve the punishment of Viktor Buta, convicted by the American court for smuggling weapons and assistance to terrorists? Holder graciously agrees to consider the request of Moscow. It is quite obvious that if this happens, the Butin will be instantly pardoned by President Putin. Precedents as much as you like. The US authorities cannot but understand that by transferring Bota to Russia, they actually liberate it.