bannon refusing to cooperate on the grounds that trump has exercised executive privilege is bogus. a former president has no privilege. we have never seen a case of a former president exercising executive privilege themselves. it has been exercised for them by current presidents. but never by a former president. that s maybe why bannon s lawyer keeps referring to trump as president trump, as opposed to former president trump, tipping his hand that he would know it doesn t make any sense legally. now bannon, even if brought on charges of contempt, he can always plead the fifth. he can always offer to comply at some point along the process. the question becomes, how late can he do that before it just triggers the prosecution? what is this about? it s not about the law. it s certainly about defiance and also delay for bannon and the others. they re hoping the committee runs out of gas or that the midterms put trumpers back in control.
to former president trump leaves us no choice. so the committee will do what we are required to do. we re left with no other choice than to ask the justice department, lock him up, hold him in contempt. congressman adam schiff tweeting earlier, we re not messing around. can they back up the talk? if so, who wins? look, here s the process. the house is going to have to vote on charges. they have the numbers in the house, the democrats. so then if they get the vote, it then goes to the doj and this becomes their problem. the law is pretty clear. bannon refusing to cooperate on the grounds that trump has exercised executive privilege is bogus. a former president has no privilege. we have never seen a case of a former president exercising executive privilege themselves. it has been exercised for them
who who wins here? in court. i think trump loses, ultimately. as tim said, we don t have a definitive answer on this question from the courts. but if you look at the purpose of executive privilege, it s designed to protect the institution, not an individual. and there is precedent, by the way, for a current president exercising executive privilege over a prior president, right? i m sure tim knows 2001, george w. bush was the one who exercised executive privilege over a request for bill clinton, his predecessor s documents but clinton didn t object. but i think the real object here, erin, is get this into courts and gum up the works and to play the delay game. so it s going to be on congress and it s going to be on the courts to act very quickly here. all right. thank you, both, very much. and next, this happened today. the president s former chief strategist, steve bannon defied congress, ignoring a subpoena by the select committee. so, what will it take to get bannon to talk?
partisan show down between the obama white house and republican controlled house of representatives. the house oversite committee voted to hold the toerp general, eric holder, in contempt, accusing the nation s highest ranking law enforcement officer. the committee vote was hours after the democratic administration upped the ante. for months, a stare down between the congress and justice department. this morning, president obama invoked executive privilege, denying the committee the documents they demanded for months from the attorney general. it would be an unprecedented step for an attorney general to be found in contempt by the entire house. that vote is set for next week, and harsh statements from all sides tonight in washington don t suggest at the moment any opening for compromise. here is the chairman, darrell issa. there s still time for avoid tg, if in fact the documents we asked for are delivered by the time the house scheduled for contempt vote. democrats on th