Wha? Really? I can’t imagine that this can fly…but here is the scoop:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report and its underlying investigative materials, escalating a battle with the Democrats on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
And of course the Justice Department is backing him up!
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday defended Trump’s use of executive privilege to withhold U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full report from House Democrats, but said it should not prevent Mueller from testifying before lawmakers.
“It is not true the president waived executive privilege by sharing materials with the Special Counsel’s office,” a department official said, adding that a prior attorney general opinion made “clear there is no waiver when the White House cooperates with DOJ (Department of Justice) by providing materials to law enforcement.”
There are several other articles that cover this in more depth that I have on my reading list but haven’t had time to get to yet.
But off the top of my head, I don’t think any documents related to the campaign fall under executive privilege.
I don’t think anything created in the Justice Department that wasn’t directed by the president comes under executive privilege.
And I don’t think anything created by the executive branch of the federal government comes under executive privilege unless it was created by the president, the West Wing staff of the president, or created by the president’s top advisors and attorneys.
Anything else is government product and the possession of we the people and subject to FOIA requests.
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