8th May, 2019
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report and its underlying investigative materials, escalating a battle with the Democrats on the US House Judiciary Committee.
The move, announced by the Justice Department in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, came just minutes before the panel was poised to vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for defying a congressional subpoena to hand over the full unredacted report.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders says in a statement: “Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and Robert Muellerat the Attorney General’s request, the President has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege.”
Nadler, reacting to the letter at the start of the House Judiciary meeting, said Trump’s decision “represents a clear escalation in the Trump administration’s blanket defiance”.