Donald Trump Has It Wrong: Cutting through the Confusion on Executive Privilege

The doctrine of executive privilege is now the centerpiece of the controversy between the Justice Department and Donald Trump over the property seized by the FBI from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. I explained late last week how the Justice Department is trying to carve classified information out of the litigation over the seizures, in which both sides have proposed special-master candidates for the unenviable task of sifting through thousands of documents to ensure that anything potentially privileged is screened out from viewing by the team of prosecutors and agents investigating the case. Still, there remains dispute about what executive privilege is, what it protects, and who may invoke it. So let’s discuss.

Donald Trump’s propensity to conflate his person with the office of the presidency, and his presidency with the well-being of the nation, appears undiminished 20 months after he left office. Executive privilege is a subject easily absorbed into this misconception.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

Featured Tags

The doctrine of executive privilege is now the centerpiece of the controversy between the Justice Department and Donald Trump over the property seized by the FBI from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. I explained late last week how the Justice Department is trying to carve classified information out of the litigation over the seizures, in which both sides have proposed special-master candidates for the unenviable task of sifting through thousands of documents to ensure that anything potentially privileged is screened out from viewing by the team of prosecutors and agents investigating the case. Still, there remains dispute about what executive privilege is, what it protects, and who may invoke it. So let’s discuss.

Donald Trump’s propensity to conflate his person with the office of the presidency, and his presidency with the well-being of the nation, appears undiminished 20 months after he left office. Executive privilege is a subject easily absorbed into this misconception.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.