2 hours ago
The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released a memo Monday extending the president's "executive privilege" to claim confidentiality over White House communications with private advisers.
The memo says the White House can withhold "communications with private advisers so long as the communications relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers."
The new policy would frustrate congressional Democrats' attempts to investigate the White House if they win back the House in the 2026 midterm elections, which they are favored to do.
The memo also alarmed government watchdog and transparency groups.
"This is the latest attempt by this administration to reduce transparency," Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), says. "The executive branch has cut resources that ensure public access to government information and taken down information from public websites. It has claimed that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. And now it claims that presidential communications with people outside the government can be shielded as privileged. It's hard not to read this as anything other than an attempt to gain cover if Congress conducts oversight hearings about the activities and decisions that have been made in the past two years."
#communications #white #oversight
The memo says the White House can withhold "communications with private advisers so long as the communications relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers."
The new policy would frustrate congressional Democrats' attempts to investigate the White House if they win back the House in the 2026 midterm elections, which they are favored to do.
The memo also alarmed government watchdog and transparency groups.
"This is the latest attempt by this administration to reduce transparency," Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), says. "The executive branch has cut resources that ensure public access to government information and taken down information from public websites. It has claimed that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. And now it claims that presidential communications with people outside the government can be shielded as privileged. It's hard not to read this as anything other than an attempt to gain cover if Congress conducts oversight hearings about the activities and decisions that have been made in the past two years."
#communications #white #oversight
