The timing of Karoline Leavitt’s surprise departure from the White House may be more calculated than it seems.
The 28-year-old press secretary’s announcement on Wednesday that she would be leaving the White House and supporting President Donald Trump as an “outside adviser” comes just two days after the Justice Department shared a memo extending the president’s “executive privilege” to “private advisers.”
The memo, as noted during a panel discussion on MS NOW’s On the Line on Thursday, followed almost immediately after Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, was officially sworn in on Monday.
The network’s legal correspondent, Lisa Rubin, explained that the memo is not a legal document, but “the department’s own interpretation of its policy.”
“It remains to be seen whether a court will say that its construction of who is entitled to executive privilege is valid or not,” Rubin told the panel. “But, at least as the DOJ considers it, is Karoline Leavitt an outside adviser when she leaves the... presidential administration and continues to talk to Trump on the phone and give him advice?”
“Absolutely,” she continued. “Because that memo defines the term ‘private adviser’ in a breathtakingly broad way. It’s basically anyone that the president calls or anyone that even his direct staff calls and solicits advice from can be a private adviser to the president.”
Executive privilege is defined by the DOJ as “the president’s authority to withhold certain sensitive information for the public good,” and is used to keep certain communications between the president and top U.S. officials private.
Rubin alleged that the administration’s vague language to describe “private advisers” is intentional because “they want it to cover any time the president picks up the phone.”
Conservative Amanda Carpenter, a fierce Trump critic, suggested that the president is trying to “shield any kind of accountability that may come later” with the memo.
“I view this as a kind of preemptive strike against any accountability that might come after the midterm elections,” she told the panel.
Trump, 80, announced on Truth Social on Wednesday that Leavitt would be departing from her role at the end of August “so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family.”
“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” he wrote.
Leavitt shared her own statement on social media, confirming that she would remain in the president’s orbit.
“President Trump has asked me to continue serving as a top advisor to him on the outside, and I will always remain a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party,” she wrote in the statement.
No immediate successor to Leavitt as the White House Press Secretary was named, but sources with knowledge of the situation told the Daily Beast that MAGA political commentator Scott Jennings is the current frontrunner.
