She FEELS she has executive privilege
Hope Hicks is refusing to answer questions. They think they’re gods, don’t they.
Former White House communications director Hope Hicks is not responding to any questions about her time at the White House in a closed-door congressional interview Wednesday, angering Democrats who say they expect to go to court to force her to answer their questions.
White House attorneys are objecting to all questions related to the White House, Democrats say, all the way down to where Hicks sat in the West Wing. But Hicks is answering questions about her time on the Trump campaign, which is not covered by executive privilege.
None of it is covered by “executive privilege.”
The White House is not asserting executive privilege, but arguing that Hicks has absolute immunity from testifying as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump. Democrats called that legal claim “ridiculous” and “absurd” as they signaled they will likely challenge it in court.
“There is no such thing as absolute immunity that prevents someone from answering questions about any subject related to their work in an administration. It just doesn’t exist,” said Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat. “This is an ongoing effort by the president of the United States to obstruct, to prevent Congress from finding the facts and behaving as if he’s above the law.”
Well he feels like someone who is above the law. Don’t we have to respect that?
The White House’s objections to Democrats’ questions were expected, as White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent the House panel a letter Tuesday evening arguing that Hicks was immune from testifying about her time at the White House as one of the President’s senior advisers, citing executive privilege protections.
“Because of this constitutional immunity, and in order to protect the prerogatives of the Office of President, the President has directed Ms. Hicks not to answer questions before the Committee relating to the time of her services as a senior adviser to the President,” Cipollone wrote.
Because of this constitutional immunity that doesn’t exist.
I am watching Obstruction of Justice in action, as @TheJusticeDept is objecting to everything that Hope Hicks wants to say during her tenure in the White House. The Administration's position is absurd & they will lose in court.
What is the @realDonaldTrump Administration hiding? https://t.co/BqhkJJlbU5
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 19, 2019
Trump is desperate to avoid having Hicks answer questions about crimes-obstruction of justice & campaign finance violations. She isn’t his wife or his priest & no privilege covers her knowledge of criminal conduct. https://t.co/Ls9lsbMqoj
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 19, 2019
Trump is now asserting that there is a privilege that permits his former staff & allies to avoid testifying about his potentially criminal conduct. There's no pretense that this is about deliberative activities in the WH. And no such privilege exists. https://t.co/SCLpPceL4m
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 19, 2019
Three little words.
"Obstruction of justice," Pelosi says when I asked her about WH saying Hope Hicks cannot answer questions about her time at the WH pic.twitter.com/CLdUERqsxq
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 19, 2019
And of course, if someone tells me she feels she has executive privilege – I cannot tell her she is ‘wrong’. Would you?
It is long past time to start impeachment proceedings, before Trump tears up the Constitution into such small pieces that you would need an electron microscope to find them.
Allegedly almost all the staff called her Trump’s “real daughter” (Ivanka being his “real wife”), so does that count?
(Source: https://nypost.com/2018/01/04/white-house-staffers-called-hope-hicks-trumps-real-daughter/ )
Ted Lieu has a higher opinion of the Supreme Court’s integrity than I do.
At what point is the law sufficiently robust that a Trump flunky will be hauled away in handcuffs for defying Congress? Every. Single. invented privilege and immunity can be stretched out like a SLAPP suit. Just delay long enough for a convenient war to break out, or for a ‘populist’ lefty to destroy the Democratic candidacy for 2020.