Could Trump really muzzle John Bolton? The limits of executive privilege, explained
WASHINGTON — Republican senators allied with President Donald Trump are increasingly arguing that the Senate should not call witnesses or subpoena documents for his impeachment trial because Trump has threatened to invoke executive privilege, and a legal fight would take too long to resolve.
Bolton, one of the four current and former officials whom Democrats want to call as a witness, has said that he will show up to testify if the Senate subpoenas him for the impeachment trial, even though the White House has told him not to disclose what he knows about Trump’s private statements and actions toward Ukraine.A valid assertion of the privilege would protect a current or former official who chooses not to comply with a subpoena.
The Trump administration has broadly pursued a strategy of fighting House oversight and impeachment subpoenas, resulting in a string of lower-court losses that have nevertheless succeeded in running down the clock. Senate Republicans have argued that any effort to enforce impeachment subpoenas could result in a long and drawn-out judicial battle as a reason for the moderate members of their caucus not to break ranks and join Democrats in voting to subpoena witnesses and documents.Rep.
In theory, the Justice Department could file a lawsuit and ask a judge to issue a restraining order barring Bolton from testifying on the grounds that he might divulge information that is subject to executive privilege. But the government has never tried to do that. In a 1974 Supreme Court case about whether President Richard M. Nixon had to turn over tapes of his Oval Office conversations to the Watergate prosecutor, the court ruled that executive privilege can be overcome if the information is needed for a criminal case. Nixon resigned 16 days later.
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