Dem
47
GOP
53
After Brett Kavanaugh lied through his teeth at his confirmation hearings, specifically in reference to his future plans for abortion cases, he at least had the decency to wait a while before proving Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to be a fool.
Newly minted AG Todd Blanche, by contrast, doesn't see the point of decency. And so, with less than 24 hours as the full-fledged Attorney General of the United States under his belt, he's already shown Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) what fools they were to vote for his confirmation. Blanche distributed a 21-page memo that. by fiat, dramatically expands executive privilege.
In the past, executive privilege was limited to conversations involving the president, and even then primarily to conversations with very-high-level officials like Cabinet officers. Now, according to Blanche and his underlings, executive privilege extends to anyone the president talks to about official business, including private citizens. This would make it nearly impossible for Congress to engage in any serious oversight of a president, since virtually all potential witnesses would be shielded from having to testify.
You don't knock out a 21-page document, with extensive citations, in 24 hours. Clearly, this thing was in the hopper while Blanche was looking the senators in the face and telling them he would be even-handed in executing the duties of his office. The dust hadn't even settled before the AG began toting Trump's water, in a manner clearly designed to block the avalanche of Democratic investigations that are coming if that party re-takes at least one chamber of Congress.
That said, this is not over yet. A Department of Justice memo is only an opinion, and is not binding. If and when
someone tries to assert the new immunity that Blanche has just bestowed, that will be challenged in court. And past
Trump attempts to expand immunity were struck down, so it probably behooves the President to be as circumspect as he is
capable of being, even if his personal lawyer AG just tried to give him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. (Z)