No on executive privilege
Steve Bannon is blowing it all out of his backside if he thinks he deserves to declare “executive privilege” to keep him from talking to a House committee that has summoned him.
The House select panel is seeking to get to the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection that sought to overturn the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
He doesn’t deserve it. Why? Because he wasn’t working for Donald Trump at the time of the riot. Moreover, he was talking politics with the then-president and their discussion didn’t have a thing to do with national policy.
The 45th POTUS is trying to flim flam his way out of providing the select panel information it is demanding by using the same canard. He cannot invoke executive privilege as a former president. What’s more, the only discussions that qualify would be those involving public policy. The House select committee — chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. — is seeking information related directly to the insurrection, which erupted on 1/6 as POTUS 45 sought to incite the mob to take the government “back.” From whom or what remains a mystery to many of us.
The House panel is set to level a contempt of Congress allegation against Bannon. It will then send the matter to the Department of Justice for a decision on whether to prosecute the former Trump policy aide on the charge.
Steve Bannon, though, cannot possibly hide behind a bogus contention that he qualifies for an executive privilege shelter provided by a twice-impeached, disgraced former president of the United States.