In his prepared remarks in front of the House Judiciary Committee Friday, acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker signaled that he planned to avoid lawmakers’ question about his conversations with President Trump on the grounds that the President may seek to invoke executive privilege on those topics at a later date.
“I want to assure you that I will seek to answer the Committee’s questions today, as best as I can, but I also must make clear that I will continue the longstanding Executive Branch policy and practice of not disclosing information that may be subject to executive privilege, such as the contents of deliberations or conversations with the President,” Whitaker will say, according to the prepared remarks.
They come after a tense showdown between Whitaker and the committee over whether the committee would subpoena him at the hearing for declining to answer certain questions about his White House contacts. Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said Thursday that any situations where Whitaker would refuse to answer the committee’s questions on a ‘”case-by-case” basis.
Read Whitaker’s prepared remarks below:
Shorter Whitaker: “Everything at Justice is peachy. Now can we talk about the wall?”
The Committee’s performance today may make or break Democratic Voter expectations for the next cycle.
Energize the voters with vigorous oversight and they’ll turn out; disappoint with ‘business as usual’ and they’ll ask themselves why bother.
Long-standing? The first time I heard this goofy concept of future-proof executive privilege was when Sessions cited it a couple of years ago. What bullshit
The stupid son-of-a-bitch. Doesn’t he get that, when Nadler slaps him with a subpoena in the hearing chair, Fat Nixon will deny ever meeting him?
Either invoke executive privilege or not. Shit or get off the pot. If Nadler and company don’t get him to invoke executive privilege they better follow through with the subpoena or there will be hell to pay. I am tired of this circus and so are all Democratic primary voters.