President Donald Trump will not invoke executive privilege to block former FBI Director James Comey from testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee later this week, the White House said Monday. “The President's power to assert executive privilege is well-established,” the White House said in a statement. “However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey's scheduled testimony.” Trump would have been on shaky legal ground if he tried to block Comey from testifying, a committee source told The Daily Beast, in part due to his status as a former government employee as well as his desire to testify. There was no “realistic enforcement mechanism for Trump to take action against Comey offering testimony voluntarily,” the source said. Additionally, legal analysts have argued that Trump’s public statements about his conversations with Comey also call into question the White House’s legal ground for invoking executive privilege. Trump fired Comey last month, prompting bipartisan concern over Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump associates and Russian operatives.
—Andrew Desiderio
