Death Row Records President Donald Trump has shut down all inquires into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative documents by asserting executive privilege, the latest blow in a tussle between Congress and the White House to see how far Trump has gone down the Russia rabbit hole.
“The president has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials,” the Justice Department wrote in a letter Wednesday to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Fortune reports.
The move comes as Nadler’s committee was preparing to vote on holding Attorney General William Barr, aka Evil Fred Flintstone, in contempt for being an overall asshole who ignored a subpoena to release the unredacted Mueller report “as well as all of his underlying evidence, such as notes that White House aides made,” Fortune reports.
“Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the attorney general’s request, the president has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, aka Satan’s most-prized backwash, said in a statement.
The Justice Department added that they are nixing all negotiations with the panel over the Mueller report, citing that their job is to protect the president, and they’ve done that. Fine, they didn’t say the last part, but you know they feel that way.
From Fortune:
Trump’s advisers have been pushing him to defy congressional investigations in hopes of luring Democrats into escalating a fight that they say will turn voters against the party in the 2020 elections. They also see an upside from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s warning on Tuesday that the administration’s defiance of subpoenas could lead to impeachment proceedings, arguing they would distract attention from candidates vying to replace Trump.
Separately, the administration on Tuesday told former White House Counsel Don McGahn not to comply with a subpoena from House Democrats to turn over documents. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that Mueller shouldn’t testify to Congress, and on Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused a request to turn over Trump’s tax returns.
White House advisers say cooperating with Democrats provides little advantage as many voters have already made up their mind about Trump’s character. Records from Trump’s business or time as president could reveal damaging information for Democrats to use against him.
Fortune notes that the move by Trump’s team to try and carry favor with voters by painting Democrats as the enemy of the state could backfire as the White House’s refusal to turn over documents could lead voters to believe that he’s got something to hide.
And of course he’s got something to hide, and it’s probably how far down Russia’s rabbit hole Trump goes. I also have it on good authority that “Russia’s rabbit hole” is Vladimir Putin’s old stripper name.