Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said on Thursday that the White House has no legal ground to limit Bannon’s testimony regarding the events that happened during the presidential transition. Ackerman added that there was no such thing as “presidential-elect privilege.”
The Watergate prosecutor commented on MSNBC regarding President Trump instructing Bannon to refuse to answer questions during an interview with the House Intelligence Committee. This week Bannon refused to answer questions about events that occurred after the Trump campaign concluded even though he was subpoenaed.
“First of all, executive privilege does not apply to Donald Trump until Jan. 20, 2017, when he was sworn in as president,” Ackerman commented.
“There’s no such thing as president-elect privilege, it’s like saying there’s attorney-client privilege when someone’s in law school and they’re not an attorney.”
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Ackerman said. “There’s lots of material to question Steve Bannon on prior to Jan. 20. That’s the time period, for example, when Michael Flynn spoke to the Russian ambassador and lied to the FBI about sanctions.”
According to The Hill, Republican Representative Mike Conaway who took over the committee’s Russia probe last year said Tuesday that Bannon would not be able to assert executive privilege.
“This witness is not an executive, he’s not in a position to be able to do that,” Conaway said.
Top Democratic Representative on the Committee Adam Schiff said Bannon “was instructed by the White House to refuse again to answer any questions concerning the time during the transition and his time in the administration.”
“The scope of this assertion of privilege — if that’s what it is — is breathtaking, it goes well beyond anything we’ve seen in this investigation. … This was effectively a gag order by the White House,” Schiff commented.
Meanwhile, the White House has denied instructing Bannon not to answer any questions.
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