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Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
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23 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
There is actually not a truly good argument even for him to refuse to answer particular questions—provided that Biden explicitly waives executive privilege with respect to questions he might be asked. As the DC Circuit recently (and rightly) ruled, albeit in a different context,
where the political branches (Congress and the incumbent president) agree on congressional need for information from the executive and the incumbent president has waived privilege, the former president's assertion of privilege does not control.
See this episode of the Lawfare Podcast. play.acast.com/s/60518a52f69a…
Where Trump will have a viable privilege claim is in asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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More from @benjaminwittes

Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
24 Dec
A thread on @KoriSchake, @AEIfdp and Jimmy Quinn's hit piece on Kori in @NRO, which I have now read. Here's the tldr: this is a form of conservative cancel culture that we should be super-savvy about.

Also @KoriSchake is a badass @NRO is going to have a hard time intimidating.
For those who didn't read the piece, which I don't recommend and am not going to link to, it basically says the following: Hill staffers are complaining about Kori because she doesn't follow current GOP orthodoxy on a few discrete issues: Nord Stream II, the Iran deal.
None of the quoted staffers will put their names to the criticism of Kori, who is the only named source in the piece.

There's another important theme in the article: Kori has never buckled from her Never Trump stance.
Read 10 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
23 Dec
Ok, folks, for those of you who have never watched @inlieuoffunshow, I am putting together a thread of recent episodes in their audio-only version. Listen to one of these podcast and, if you like it, subscribe—and maybe check out the live video version on YouTube or Crowdcast.
Here's Olympian Noah Hoffman talking cross-country skiing and doping:
Here's the episode where @SarahLongwell25 and I go on a date to the French ambassador's house:
Read 12 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
13 Dec
It really wasn't a hoax...
Here's @jon_rauch on the subject: persuasion.community/p/the-real-hoax
And here's @davidfrum: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
These pieces actually understate the matter because they focus only on Russia. The simple truth of the matter is that the Trump presidency was the biggest counterintelligence disaster in the nation's history. It began during the campaign and ended when he left office. It included
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
9 Dec
I had occasion last night to reread for the first time in many years Churchill's eulogy of Neville Chamberlain on the floor on the Commons. OMG is it great! So surprising in its generosity and warmth, so forgiving of Chamberlain's colossal wrongness, so resistant to the
schismatic urge in the face of evil, so willing to credit Chamberlain's motives and intentions, and his actions after the war began. This is the #CoalitionOfAllDemocraticForces at its very best.

Read it please. It will take 7 minutes of your life: winstonchurchill.org/resources/spee…
Then ask yourself this question: If Churchill could make this speech about Chamberlain after Munich, during the War, after having been so deeply vindicated in his denunciations of Chamberlain's appeasement policies, knowing the disdain history would rightly have for Chamberlain,
Read 5 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
9 Dec
Before I go to bed, I here's an assembly of my various writing and speaking about Fred Hiatt this week. I have tweeted these all before, but this thread puts it all in one place.
The night of Fred's death, I talked about him with @Klonick and @GenevieveDFR on @inlieuoffunshow:
This morning, I talked about him with @SykesCharlie on the @BulwarkOnline Podcast. share.fireside.fm/episode/eOQ-S0…
Read 7 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
27 Nov
.@anneapplebaum has done more to educate the English-speaking world about the mass crimes of the Soviet Union than any other writer of her generation. Not since Robert Conquest has there been a more important contribution, and unlike Conquest, who couldn’t write, Anne can.
Her book “Gulag” remains the single most important single volume of its kind. Here’s a story about Anne, John McCain and the book party for “Gulag” back when Poland still represented proudly democratic values.
Read 4 tweets

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