Legal experts are weighing in after Donald Trump released an angry statement Wednesday night following reports the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has ordered a massive trove of documents related to the insurrection, including many items about the former president, including his mental health.
“Unfortunately, this partisan exercise is being performed at the expense of long-standing legal principles of privilege,” Trump claimed in his attack. “Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my Administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our Nation.”
That does not appear to be accurate.
“There’s a legitimate scope of executive privilege, which ensures a president gets candid, thorough advice,” says former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now an MSNBC legal analyst and professor of law. “But it doesn’t extend to covering up efforts to keep the new president from taking office. Trump’s desperation to keep info secret says it all.”
Attorney Teri Kanefield, whose legal analysis appears in numerous mainstream news publications, says: “I’d like to hear how revealing communication about an insurrection and a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally would ‘impair government functions.'”
“This doesn’t stop him from filing a lawsuit. It won’t go anywhere, but he can huff and puff,” she adds.
Kanefield also notes “the DOJ already said Trump-era officials can testify.”
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig predicts Trump will try to obstruct the Committee’s work by taking it to court: