Josh Gerstein:
Well, this does put the Justice Department in kind of an awkward position.
Most of the experts that I have talked to have said they think this is a rather weak assertion of executive privilege on the part of former President Trump and Steve Bannon. And the main reason for that is, number one, it is former President Trump, so it’s not a current president.
And the second reason is that Bannon was not in the White House even at the time of these January 6 events. He was, at best, a private adviser or political adviser to President Trump. So, the problem, though, for the Justice Department is that, in the past, they have opined that, both those situations, there still could be a valid claim of executive privilege for a former president or an unofficial adviser.
So the question is, can they make a criminal case against Bannon while sort of not completely contradicting their past positions?
