President Trump has had enough of Jerry Nadler’s kangaroo court. Nadler, right this minute, is holding Bill Barr in contempt because he would not break the law and allow the House Democrats to see grand jury testimony.
It is an overreach, especially as Mueller did not bring charges. So what could be in these usually secret transcripts?
Nothing illegal or else Mueller would have charged. Enter President Trump. From The Hill:
The White House on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, ramping up its clash with Congress over its investigations into President Trump.
The move came just before the House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over Mueller’s unredacted report and underlying materials, which the panel had subpoenaed.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), that the administration was following through on its threat to assert privilege if the panel refused to delay the contempt vote, saying lawmakers effectively “terminated” negotiations over access to Mueller’s report and underlying evidence.
“As we have repeatedly explained, the attorney general could not comply with your subpoena in its current form without violating the law, court rules and court orders, and without threatening the independence of the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial functions,” Boyd wrote. “Accordingly, this is to advise you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials.”
Wednesday marks the first time Trump has used executive privilege to stymie House Democrats’ probes into his administration, campaign and businesses. The move is sure to anger Democrats and could trigger a legal challenge that may take months to resolve.
The White House maintained that Trump had “no other option” than to exert executive privilege.
“Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the attorney general’s request, the president has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
