Trump Invokes Executive Privilege Over Unredacted Mueller Report

President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he departs after the presentation of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point football team, in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 6, 2019. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

President Donald Trump has asserted executive privilege on May 8, to block the efforts of the House Judiciary Committee Democrats to get an unredacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and underlying documents.

“Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the Attorney General’s request, the President has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege,” the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The statement came as the House Judiciary Committee is holding a vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt after the Justice Department (DOJ) refused to turn over an unredacted Mueller report.

The committee had issued a subpoena for the unredacted copy of the Mueller report.

On May 8, the Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd notified the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) that the President had asserted executive privilege over the “the entirety of the subpoenaed materials” because the committee rejected a request from the DOJ to delay the vote on contempt.

“Accordingly, this is to advise you that the President has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials. As I indicated in my letter to you last night, this protective assertion of executive privilege ensures the President’s ability to make a final decision whether to assert privilege following a full review of these materials,” read the letter (pdf).

Sanders said Nadler is “only interested in pandering to the press and pleasing his radical left constituency.”

“The American people deserve a Congress that is focused on solving real problems like the crisis at the border, high prescription drug prices, our country’s crumbling infrastructure, and so much more,” she said.

No Collusion, No Obstruction

In a report released April 18, Mueller had concluded that there was no collusion between Trump or his campaign and Russian actors who sought to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Attorney General William Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had concluded that there’s no obstruction of justice, The Epoch Times reported.

“After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,” he announced in a press conference before releasing the Mueller report to Congress committee and the public.