January 6 and Executive Privilege

It’s executive privilege day on Advisory Opinions! After a brief update on the Texas abortion ...

Published October 11, 2021

It’s executive privilege day on Advisory Opinions! After a brief update on the Texas abortion litigation, David and Sarah “dive right in” to a discussion of the January 6 commission subpoenas and the power of Donald Trump to use executive privilege to block testimony. Our hosts also talk about how “parents and pals” help debunk a Brett Kavanaugh conspiracy theory. And they wind up with a crazy clemency case that’s likely to leave a man in prison because a Donald Trump sentence was just too ambiguous.

Show Notes:

–5th Circuit abortion ruling

–POGO “The Limits of Executive Privilege”

–Nixon v. Administrator of General Services

–Harvard Law “Can Donald Trump still assert executive privilege?”

–2007 OLC memo

–Don McGahn opinion

–Mother Jones “Here’s the Truth About Brett Kavanaugh’s Finances”

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David French

David French is a columnist for the New York Times. He’s a former senior editor of The Dispatch. He’s the author most recently of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.

Sarah Isgur

Sarah Isgur is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in northern Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2019, she had worked in every branch of the federal government and on three presidential campaigns. When Sarah is not hosting podcasts or writing newsletters, she’s probably sending uplifting stories about spiders to Jonah, who only pretends to love all animals.

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