President Trump will reportedly invoke “executive privilege” against subpoenas delivered to his former top White House advisers by the heavily partisan Jan. 6 commission.
“President Trump is going to be fighting back,” with presidential protections, Newsmax’s Greg Stinchfield announced on Wednesday.
“He is going to invoke executive privilege and that means that people like Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump adviser Dan Scavino, and adviser Kash Patel, will not be able to comply with these subpoenas coming from the Jan. 6 commission,” the host said. “This is what you get with President Trump. You get a man who fights back.”
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 “attack on the Capitol” was formed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and only two members appointed to the committee are from the Republican party. “Never Trumpers” Rep. Adam Kinzinger R-Ill., and Rep. Liz Cheney R-Wyo., were the two chosen by Pelosi to represent the GOP, and both have been critical of Trump’s efforts to dodge the subpoenas.
Although a president’s right to claim executive privilege, or the right of a president and certain members of the executive branch to keep specific information confidential, is well known, the rules around the exemption are still debatable.
According to an Oct. 6 report from the Washington Examiner, subpoenas have been served to Trump aides Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, and Kash Patel. However, the committee has been unable to serve former Trump adviser Dan Scavino a subpoena as he is “nowhere to be found,” the report states. There is an Oct. 7 deadline to comply with the committee’s request to submit all documents ahead of the deposition a week later.
However, it appears that the commission’s attempt to subpoena President Trump and his advisers could prove feeble if they successfully invoke executive privilege.
