The White House claims top advisers have absolute immunity from testifying to Congress about their interactions with the president. Is there any legal basis for that? And does either side of the argument want a court to weigh in on this? Not really. Ken White tells us why. Former Trump campaign chair Corey Lewandowski, who testified (or rather, tried very hard to not give any answers to any questions about possible incidents of obstruction of justice) in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, never served in the White House. Does executive privilege extend to him in any way? What remedy does Congress have in this situation?
Then: one of the foreign emoluments cases is back in the news. A federal trial judge in New York threw out a suit from the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on behalf of hotels that compete with Trump hotels in Washington DC, but a three-judge panel from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has brought it back because the New York judge had too narrow a view of standing. Standing, of course, is the issue that has tripped up the other emoluments cases.
Plus: listener questions about Andrew McCabe, the Manhattan district attorney subpoenas eight years of Trump’s tax returns, and a very specific discussion about the Department of Justice and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.