President Donald Trump is threatening to broadly assert executive privilege to block current and former aides from testifying before Congress. That includes some who’ve co-operated with special counsel Robert Mueller.
This strategy could lead to a messy and protracted legal fight. But even if the White House is eventually defeated in court, the president and his allies could have the chance to run out the clock to the 2020 election.
Executive privilege is the president’s power to keep information from the courts, Congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of the Oval Office decision-making process.
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The privilege to withhold documents and prohibit aides from testifying rests on the proposition that the president has an almost unparalleled need to protect the confidentiality of candid advice that goes into presidential judgments.