A new report raises the question of whether President Donald Trump's decision to invoke executive privilege is null and void because he already waived it.
One day after Trump cited executive privilege to keep lawmakers from seeing special counsel Robert Mueller's full report and the supporting documents he used to compile it, NBC News noted that the opposite action already may have been taken.
Trump allowed his aides to speak with Mueller and his investigators and provide documents that were requested as part of the Russia investigation, which probed Russian inference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin to win. Mueller concluded that there was no collusion, but he punted on whether Trump obstructed justice. The Department of Justice then decided not to pursue obstruction charges, citing insufficient evidence.
Democrats are now lobbying to see the full Mueller report that's not redacted to mask classified and privileged information.
"I think a court will find the privilege is inapplicable given the waiver," Stephen Truitt, who worked at the Department of Justice under former President Lyndon Johnson, told NBC. "It's extraordinary that his lawyers did not make explicit to Mueller in a letter that a waiver was not intended if they had the slightest doubt about it."
Republican lawyer Elliot Berke added, "The big questions for the courts to consider will be whether this was a proper assertion of executive privilege and, if so, was that privilege waived?"
Democrats also are seeking to interview current and former members of the Trump administration as part of their continued investigations of Trump and his background as it relates to the Mueller report.
So far, Trump won't let them.
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