Former White House Special Counsel Greg Craig explains that Trump lost the ability to claim executive privilege when he opened his mouth and talked about his conversations with Comey.
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During an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Craig explained how Trump destroyed his own executive privilege, “Under ordinary circumstances as a White House counsel, I would say that that would be covered by the deliberative privilege, which is intended to protect the confidentiality of conversations that the president has about business with his top advisers, members of cabinet, and certainly the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation would fall into that category, but I think the President has talked about that conversation so much on NBC News that the door is open, and its got to be considered a waiver if he ever challenged it or tried to prevent Comey from testifying about it. He’s not entitled to give his view of that conversation and then invoke executive privilege to prevent Director Comey from giving his view.”
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Once again, Trump’s inability to keep his mouth closed has come back to haunt him. Whether it is giving away classified secrets to the Russians, or going on defensive rants to Lester Holt, Donald Trump continues to pay the price for not knowing when to close his mouth.
The White House may try to invoke executive privilege to keep Comey from testify, but the odds are good that they will lose. Trump doesn’t get that he can’t smear Comey and then claim executive privilege.
A big reason why James Comey is going to be able to publicly testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his conversations with Trump is that the President had publicly smear the former FBI director instead of keeping his mouth shut.
Donald Trump’s biggest problem continues to be Donald Trump.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
