Former President Donald Trump will use executive privilege to block subpoenas from the House committee investigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol building, a new report says.
The subpoenas, issued Sept. 23, have a Thursday deadline to comply or face “criminal referrals.” Trump will instead invoke executive privilege, a power he retains over events that occurred during his administration despite leaving office, to protect a handful of former aides from divulging information about Jan. 6, Grant Stinchfield from Newsmax reported Wednesday.
“He is going to invoke executive privilege, and that means that people like Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Dan Scavino, a top adviser; and Kash Patel, another top adviser, will not be able to comply with these subpoenas coming from the Jan. 6 commission,” Stinchfield said. “This is what you get with President Trump. You get a man who fights back. That’s what we love about President Trump, and he’s sticking it to these people trying to go after him.”
TRUMP SAYS ‘EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE WILL BE DEFENDED’ IN AFFRONT TO CAPITOL RIOT COMMITTEE
Trump lawyer Patrick Philbin, a former deputy White House counsel, is expected to tell the men not to comply with the subpoenas because doing so would hinder the president’s right to confidential information they gave to him during his administration, the host added.
After President Joe Biden declined last month to invoke executive privilege to stop the subpoenas, Trump vowed to fight the subpoenas and said he hoped the committee would also investigate the 2020 election.
“We will fight the subpoenas on executive privilege and other grounds, for the good of our country,” Trump said. “While we wait to find out whether or not subpoenas will be sent out to antifa and Black Lives Matter for the death and destruction they have caused in tearing apart our Democrat-run cities throughout America.”
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Many presidents, beginning with George Washington, have invoked executive privilege, and the power has since been extended to former presidents. Those who have since left office have on occasion exercised the power, such as when former President Ronald Reagan invoked executive privilege in 1990 to avoid turning over excerpts of his White House diaries.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
