Top congressional Democrats on Tuesday pushed back on a new memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) arguing that President Donald Trump can assert executive privilege over communications with advisors even if they do not work at the White House or within the government at all.
“Executive privilege can apply to presidential communications with private advisers so long as the communications relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and are confidential,” the OLC opinion, published on Monday, reads.
During the first Trump administration and into the Biden administration, Trump and his lawyers pushed to expand the concept of executive privilege beyond all recognition, asserting it over anything and everything they could, in many cases successfully stonewalling investigators. But the OLC opinion applying the concept to not just administration officials and aides, but private individuals who meet with the president takes Trump’s push to a whole new level.
The memo was widely interpreted as preparation for a world in which Republicans have lost control of one or both chambers of Congress, allowing Democrats to launch probes into two years of White House misconduct. In response to the memo, Democrats criticized the Trump DOJ for attempting to cover up the president’s corruption.
“Donald Trump is scared. He knows accountability is coming. He’s using his newly installed Attorney General/personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to cover up his communications with private advisers and special interest cronies,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a social media post on Tuesday. “These are the actions of someone with something to hide.”
Schumer underscored that the Trump DOJ’s attempt to hide the communications between Trump and advisors is a sign that the administration is worried about the flood of oversight and congressional investigations that will likely come if Democrats manage to take control of one or both chambers after the 2026 midterms.
“It shows he is petrified of the questions a Democratic Congress will demand answers to. We will not let Trump escape the accountability he deserves,” Schumer said.
The memo appears to have been written in response to a request from Trump’s counsel to determine whether Trump could assert executive privilege “to protect communications between himself and private advisers,” T. Elliot Gaiser, the assistant attorney general for the OLC, wrote in the memo:
You have asked whether the President may assert executive privilege to protect communications between himself and private advisers. You did not indicate a specific adviser or subject matter, but specified that you were primarily concerned with the presidential communications component of executive privilege. Consistent with the nature of the privilege itself, we assumed your inquiry to be “limited to communications ‘in performance of [a President’s] responsibilities,’ ‘of his office,’ and made ‘in the process of shaping policies and making decisions.’” … Based on that assumption, we advised that executive privilege would presumptively extend to such communications. We now memorialize the basis of that advice.
Trump has been known to seek advice from a variety of allies outside the White House — including congressional lawmakers as well as personal friends and business acquaintances.
“Restricting executive privilege to purely intragovernmental communications would foreclose the President from relying on an array of important sources that he may find necessary to the effective discharge of his responsibilities of office,” the opinion reads. “Such an outcome not only would impair the President’s Article II functions, but ultimately would harm the public itself.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also raised concerns about the memo.
“The Office of Legal Counsel used to have sufficient independence from the president to give sound legal advice to the executive branch. Under Trump, it is an office that merely tells the president what he wants to hear,” Schiff said in a social media post Tuesday.
“This latest opinion should be seen as a partisan measure to insulate the president and his corrupt activities from Congressional subpoenas when the majority flips,” Schiff added.
Democrats from the lower chamber also voiced their disdain for the OLC memo.
“The most transparent administration in history is making the most absurd arguments to suppress the most damning information about its unprecedented corruption and lawlessness,” House Judiciary Democrats said in a statement.
“This Mafia State Code of Silence has nothing to do with the American Constitution and it won’t stop Judiciary Dems from investigating this Administration’s rank corruption and using Congress’s powers to ensure disgorgement, restitution and justice for the rampant plunder of our government,” they added, hinting to possible investigations that may come if Democrats take control of the House.
The most transparent administration in history is making the most absurd arguments to suppress the most damning information about its unprecedented corruption and lawlessness.
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) August 11, 2026
In a ridiculous new memo, Trump’s lawyers argue they can impose a total gag order on ANYONE who EVER… https://t.co/QMop6Vx4OJ
“The President is trying to shield himself & his cronies from accountability,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said in a social media post. “He knows what they’re doing is unpopular, harmful, & corrupt. It won’t work. Accountability is coming.”
“This Mafia State Code of Silence has nothing to do with the American Constitution and it won’t stop Judiciary Dems from investigating this Administration’s rank corruption and using Congress’s powers to ensure disgorgement, restitution and justice for the rampant plunder of our government,” they added, hinting to possible investigations that may come if Democrats take control of the House.”
This is the crux of it right there. And the wording is good.
It’s hard to grift and graft with abandon when people are looking over your shoulder and asking messy questions.
Bad boys bad boys what are you going to do when they come for you? (hide in an airport food truck).
The solution is obvious, impeach and convict, trump, blanche, vought, miller (if we can, I’m thinking not, just arrest him and throw away the key), and most of everyone else at the DoJ he’s nominated.
And every acting anything, give them 30 days notice to vacate or they get impeached.