I hadn't realized they have drafted a brand new memo that exlcudes whomever the President doesn't want to testify. I quote;
The White House previously invoked executive privilege in an effort to prevent McGahn from producing documents to Congress. Now the White House -- perhaps recognizing that its executive privilege invocation would likely fail on the legal merits -- has changed tack and instead made an even broader claim that Congress cannot ever compel testimony from a senior adviser to the President.
This is nuts. The White House is relying on a brand new memo from the Office of Legal Counsel claiming that, as an absolute matter of separation of powers and executive branch autonomy, Congress cannot force the President's senior advisers to testify.
Notably, the memo cites not a single court decision to support this novel proposition. The memo does begrudgingly note in passing that the only court opinion on the matter, a 2008 decision relating to testimony from former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, actually reaches the opposite conclusion: Senior advisers to the President are not immune from compelled congressional testimony.
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