Opinion: Trump has shown his contempt for Congress. Will Congress reciprocate?
By Neil Kinkopf May 22 at 5:02 PM Neil Kinkopf teaches constitutional law at Georgia State University College of Law and served in the Office of Legal Counsel from 1993-1997.
The White House on Monday released an opinion it received from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The opinion notes that, since the Watergate investigation, it has been the consistent position of the executive branch that senior presidential advisers, including the White House counsel, are absolutely privileged from complying with any congressional subpoena for testimony.
The lead rationale for the Justice Department’s position is that the president is independent of and equal to Congress. According to the opinion released Monday, “subjecting a senior presidential advisor to the congressional subpoena power would be akin to requiring the President himself to appear before Congress. . . . Yet Congress may no more summon the President to a congressional committee room than the President may command members of Congress to appear at the White House.
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