Thread by @marty_lederman

1/ Two important details in the Cipollone letter:

First, Cipollone *still* insists Trump "has done nothing wrong"!--indeed, that the HPSCI hearings "confirm[ed]" it. Extraordinary and deeply troubling for the WHC to say such a thing.

politico.com/f/?id=0000016e…

@just_security

2/ As @benjaminwittes and I have written, this claim of propriety might well be of greater longterm concern/damage than the wrongdoing itself.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Second, Cipollone writes that "Both Presidents [Nixon and Clinton] in th[eir] [impeachment] proceedings . . .

3/ ... asserted numerous privileges." I don't believe, however, that *any* of the examples at the pages (24-26) of the CRS report Cipollone cites involved privilege claims *in impeachment proceedings.*

fas.org/sgp/crs/secrec…

4/ Indeed, Presidents from Washington on down have acknowledged that executive privilege is inapplicable--or in any event outweighed by congressional need--in impeachment inquiries. Polk's 1846 statement is representative. He “cheerfully admitted” that ...

5/ ... with “a view to the exercise of [the impeachment] power,” the House “has the right to investigate the conduct of all public officers under the Government,” and its power “in the pursuit of this object would penetrate ...

6/... into the most secret recesses of the Executive Departments. It could command the attendance of any and every agent of the Government, and compel them to produce all papers, public or private, official or unofficial, & to testify on oath to all facts within their knowledge.”

7/ In such cases, said Polk, “all the archives and papers of the Executive Departments, public or private, would be subject to the inspection and control of a committee of [Congress] and every facility in the power of the Executive be afforded them ...

8/ ... to enable them to prosecute an investigation.”

I'm not aware of Johnson/Nixon/Clinton ever invoking privilege in such proceedings--or any President (until now) claiming that Polk was wrong.

9/ Please let me know if there are counterexamples that would support Cipollone's assertion of the relevance of exec. privilege in such proceedings.

10/ Thanks to @jshaub for pointing me to what might be the only example: On 06/10/74, Nixon asserted EP against a subpoena in the Rodino impeachment investigation for some of the tapes the SCOTUS a few weeks later required him to give to the grand jury.

timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1…