Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser has signed off on new powers that will allow Donald Trump to keep a wider range of his communications hidden from Congress.
A new Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo released Monday argues that executive privilege can extend to Trump’s conversations with “private advisers” when those discussions involve official presidential decision-making and remain confidential.
The memo also says those advisers could invoke the same protections to keep their own communications with private citizens out of public view.
“Executive privilege can apply to presidential communications with private advisers so long as the communications relate to official presidential decision making, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and are confidential,” the document states.
It adds that “private advisers” can include anyone Trump consults outside the executive branch — including members of the public, state officials and even employees of other federal branches.
“For the purposes of this memorandum, we use the term “private advisers” to include anyone the President consults outside the Executive Branch, whether they be members of the public, state officials, or employees of other branches of the federal government,” the document says.
In practice, the interpretation could give Trump a powerful new argument for resisting congressional subpoenas seeking communications involving people who have no formal government position.
And that could become complicated if the Democrats retake the House in November’s midterms, which polls show is increasingly likely.
In that scenario, Democrats could move to impeach Trump over his decision to launch military strikes on Iran without first seeking congressional authorization.
Democrats have already tried twice to impeach Trump during his second term, but both efforts failed amid Republican control of Congress.
If Democrats retake the House, however, the political calculus could change dramatically.
“Big implications if Dems take back the House and start investigating Trump,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman wrote on X.
But House Democrats are reportedly preparing a broad investigation into companies and financial firms linked to Trump’s political and business network, rather than immediately pursuing impeachment, Reuters reports.
That is because they believe investigating Trump’s outside network could produce more evidence than confronting the White House directly, which they expect to resist oversight and portray the probes as a partisan attack, sources told Reuters.
“We’re not going into this to impeach,” a senior Democratic aide told Reuters. “No one wants a failed vote on day one. The focus is on building a body of evidence through investigations that can hold Trump accountable.”
Apple, Alphabet, Palantir, Blackstone, BlackRock and companies owned by Elon Musk, including Tesla, have reportedly emerged in discussions because of their government contracts, regulatory exposure or dealings with the administration, according to three sources.
“From sketchy Pentagon contracts lining the pockets of the president’s sons, Trump’s crypto billions, and the shady backroom deals for Trump donors, we will ensure we combat corruption when Democrats take back the House in November,” California Rep. Robert Garcia said in a statement.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Justice for comment.
