Legal Move To Thwart Trump Executive Privilege Claims Announced

By
Carissa House-Dunphy
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For someone who claims to have never done anything wrong in his life, Donald Trump goes to a lot of trouble to hide everything that could potentially get him into trouble. His latest attempt at secrecy includes claims of “executive privilege” throughout the investigation into Trump’s supporters’ attack on the Capitol Building.

According to Trump, “executive privilege” means no one can hold him accountable for the many things he’s done in office; however, he lost the election in 2020 whether he’ll admit it or not, and only the sitting president gets to decide what is privileged at this point. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed an amicus brief to oppose Trump’s obstruction of justice.

‘This is no ordinary executive privilege dispute. In deciding that the requested documents should be turned over to the January 6 Select Committee, President Biden cited the “unique and extraordinary circumstances” presented by former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.’

Like Trump tends to do, he remembers the parts of the Constitution that benefits him and ignores others. The founding fathers never wrote in the founding documents of our government that all former presidents can claim “executive privilege” at will, in fact, there were specific rules to avoid that. CREW reminded the courts in the amicus brief of one of those rules.

‘The privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic,” and thus can be invoked only with respect to matters involving the “discharge of [the former President’s] duties.’

Trump’s claims of executive privilege are all but shut down by the Constitution, in fact. He no longer has the claim to it and, since he has ability to understand that which does not directly benefit him, he doesn’t get to decide what is best in the public interest anymore.

‘Under settled Supreme Court precedent, the sitting president has the power to assert constitutional privileges. Former presidents retain only a limited right to assert executive privilege. If, however, there is a disagreement over whether to assert privilege, the sitting president’s views are entitled to greater weight, especially when the dispute involves the president’s duties under Article II of the Constitution. In the unique and extraordinary circumstances of this case, President Biden’s constitutional judgement not to assert privilege outweighs the former president’s privilege claims.’



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