A new memo from the executive branch’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) asserts expansive rights to executive privilege, claiming that it can allow even private presidential advisors to exercise testimonial immunity. Arguably part of a long pattern of executive overreach underwritten by the OLC, the memo could help shield corrupt practices even if it is eventually overturned by a court. CERL Faculty Director Claire Finkelstein, writing in The Guardian, asserts that such actions have the ability to obstruct essential efforts at congressional oversight. In so doing, they lessen Congress’s ability to investigate the executive branch and act as a true check on presidential power, a possibility the Trump administration seems to be forestalling as midterms approach.

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and the Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. Read her bio here.  

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of any organization or university.