Attorney General Garland made it clear in Bannon’s DOJ indictment that executive privilege belongs to the Executive Branch, not Trump.
Page two of the Bannon charge spell it out, “STEPHEN K. BANNON was a private citizen. For approximately seven months in 2017, more than three years before the events of January 6, 2021, BANNON was employed by the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government as the Chief Strategist and Counselor of the 2 to: President. “After leaving the White House in 2017, BANNON did not work in any executive branch or federal government position again.”
The DOJ never has to mention Trump or Biden or connection to executive privilege. The DOJ argues that executive privilege rests with the Executive Branch, meaning that the current head of the Executive Branch, President Biden, is the person with the authority to exercise executive privilege.
As Laurence Tribe put it on Twitter:
DOJ rightly says executive privilege does not belong to any individual but to the executive branch, of which the sole president is the head. His name is Biden, not Trump. https://t.co/yp1yIpaCMz
– Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) 12 November 2021
The DOJ has not broken with any previous statements on executive privilege, but by prosecuting Steve Bannon criminally and placing executive privilege power at the Executive Branch, the message is very clear. Donald Trump has no executive privilege.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, specializing in social reform movements.
Awards and professional membership
Member of the Professional Journalists Association and the American Political Science Association
