Former President Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege was utterly shut down during a hearing in federal court on Tuesday after federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson asked attorney Justin Clark, who is representing Trump, to explain why the former president has more authority than the current president when it comes to decisions about executive privilege.
A judge has previously rejected Trump’s attempts to use executive privilege to keep his documents hidden. But the former president’s lawyers argued that Trump should be allowed to invoke executive privilege to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from viewing documents related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Is there a circumstance where the former president ever gets to make this sort of call?” Judge Jackson reportedly asked Trump’s attorneys, according to Raw Story.
Judge Patricia Ann Millett presented a hypothetical in which the current president needed to use the former president’s documents for national security reasons.
Judge Jackson also pointed out that “GSA v Nixon was about whether Nixon retained a confidentiality interest in documents Congress had passed a law to let the US take possession of after he’d resigned,” justice correspondent Andrew Feinberg reported.
“So to the extent that you find in that case, the right to come to court, to dispute the current president’s ability to release the records. I don’t see that in that case, because that’s not the circumstance. I also don’t necessarily see it in the statute,” Judge Jackson said.
“Wow. Trump lawyer Justin Clark just stepped in it with Judge Millett,” Feinberg reported on Twitter. “He’s telling her that a former president could sue to stop a current president from using a previous administration’s records to conduct foreign policy and national security decision-making.”
“Clark can’t give Millett a situation in which he thinks a court could let a current president use those documents under her hypothetical,” Feinberg added.
Clark can’t give Millett a situation un which he thinks a court could let a current president use those documents under her hypothetical.
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) November 30, 2021
"So to the extent that you find in that case, the right to come to court, to dispute the current president's ability to release the records. I don't see that in that case, because that's not the circumstance. I also don't necessarily see it in the statute," Judge Jackson says
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) November 30, 2021
