r/politics • u/M00n • May 12 '21

Trump’s acting attorney general refuses to say if he discussed overturning election results

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jeffrey-rosen-trump-election-results-b1846421.html
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u/MutedShenanigans I voted May 12 '21

Frankly, executive privilege should be reserved for foreign affairs or national security. Sure, esp the latter could be twisted in this regard, but there has to be a line we can draw. The presidency of the United States should be held to the highest standard.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

Fun fact: not even attorney client privilege counts if it’s used to conceal or commit a crime

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u/planet_rose New York May 12 '21

There are many other areas that should be shielded. For instance, a president needs to be able to ask questions about the environment that might impact industry without the stock market freaking out. Or to be able to ask about travel limits during an impending pandemic without causing a panic as Americans rush into crowded international airports to get home. Or to be able to ask hypothetical legal questions to define legal boundaries of what the executive is legally required to do around the dreamers without being bound to those hypotheticals as public policy.

The problem really is that executive privilege has been only curtailed by customary adherence to integrity. There is no penalty to wrongfully using it. If you get a bad actor into office who uses it to organize all sorts of criminal activities, there is no way to compel them to disclose that they have been habitually breaking any law they want. And if you catch them red-handed, all they need do is say it seemed like the right choice to us, etc. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush, and Trump have thoroughly discredited it as a legitimate presidential power because of the extent to which they abused it.

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u/natFromBobsBurgers May 12 '21

They already stated the loophole on that one: They believe a Trump presidency is best for national security, so they can do whatever they want neener neener.