White House: Trump Won’t Use Executive Privilege To Stop Comey From Testifying

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the daily press briefing, Thursday, May 11, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday said President Donald Trump will not use executive privilege to stop former FBI Director James Comey from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week.

“The President’s power to exert executive privilege is very well established,” Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. “However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey’s scheduled testimony.”

The White House released a statement by email with the same wording a few minutes later.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer would not say last week whether Trump would try to block Comey from testifying before the committee on Thursday. Legal experts said Trump could certainly try, but had undermined his own argument with comments about Comey’s firing, and the Associated Press reported on Sunday that Trump was leaning against doing so.

Comey is expected to discuss how Trump pressured him to drop the FBI’s investigation into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, CNN reported last week.

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Notable Replies

  1. Yep, the optics of Donnie pulling such a bonehead, self-incriminating, move finally dawned on the crack Oval Trailer staff… Too bad…

  2. “President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey’s scheduled testimony.”

    “…because he doesn’t have even the shadow of a legal leg to stand on.”

  3. How generous of Trump! Of course the fact such a play wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance of succeeding might have had something to do with it. This is like me saying “I’ve decided I’m not going to date Eugenie Bouchard after all”

  4. What executive privilege? Comey is a private citizen, thanks to Trump.

  5. “The President’s power to exert executive privilege is very well established,” Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. “However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey’s scheduled testimony.”

    So, I take it this means at 3AM tomorrow Trump is tweeting he'll exercise his executive privilege to impede Comey's testimony?

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