May 9, 2019
Trump Administration Stonewalling Congress: ACS Resources
Attorney General William Barr’s refusal to comply with the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena has set off debate over the limits of executive privilege. Writing for ACS’s Expert Forum, Professor Victoria Nourse explains that Supreme Court case law makes it clear Congress has the authority to subpoena any witness and hold them in contempt of Congress on any matter about which Congress could legitimately oversee the executive: “Given the breadth of Congress’s oversight powers, enforcing these subpoenas should be an easy case for any judge."
Related ACS resources on executive privilege and other issues affecting the disclosure of the unredacted Mueller Report and the underlying evidence
Analysis: In an article for Bloomberg, Alan Morrison, ACS Faculty Advisor at George Washington University Law, explains the intricacies of how the ongoing subpoena battle being fought on Capitol Hill will all play out.
Analysis: For more about executive privilege, read the joint ACS-CREW Presidential Investigation Education Project: Evidentiary Privileges Can Do Little to Block Trump-Related Investigations. It examines privilege doctrines raised by witnesses in the congressional and criminal investigations of President Trump and his associates—including executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Podcast: ACS and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) hosted a discussion on April 5 about whether grand jury secrecy rules and executive privilege should operate as categorical bars to releasing the Mueller Report and related evidence.
Speakers include Barbara McQuade, Professor from Practice, University of Michigan Law School; former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan; and Andrew Wright, Senior Fellow and Founding Editor of Just Security; Associate Counsel to President Barack Obama.