At the last minute, as the House Judiciary Committee debated whether or not to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over the unredacted Mueller report, President Donald Trump decided to use his power to claim executive privilege over the entire report. The announcement was made, of course, via Twitter from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Statement on Executive Privilege pic.twitter.com/6ujCZDnMC0
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) May 8, 2019
Executive privilege does not really apply to the Mueller report since it has already been released and Trump waived it early on in an effort to appear “transparent.” Meanwhile, he’s bucking oversight on various issues, such as his efforts to put a citizenship question on the 2020 census, his financial history, and every other investigation Congress has begun whether or not they have anything to do with the Mueller report.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was quick to shut that statement from the White House down.
‘Besides misapplying the doctrine of executive privilege, since the White House waived these privileges long ago and the department seemed open to sharing these materials with us just yesterday, this decision represents a clear escalation, and the Trump administration’s blanket defiance of Congress constitutionally mandated duties. I hope that the department will think better of this last-minute outburst and return to negotiations.’
Trump’s last minute, desperate move to conceal the truth from the American people is nothing more than a vain attempt to protect himself despite 10 separate descriptions of felony crimes he committed. His “no collusion, no obstruction” claims won’t hold anymore when all the evidence comes out, so he’s determined to do anything he can to keep that from happening.
Twitter had their own thoughts on the exercise of executive privilege. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
