DOJ threatens executive privilege over Mueller report if Dems carry out contempt vote

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it will ask President Trump to invoke executive privilege over the Mueller report if the House Judiciary Committee goes through with its threat to vote on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd in a letter on Tuesday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) threatened to turn to the presidential power on the eve of the contempt markup before the panel, a move that is certain to deepen the agency’s feud with Capitol Hill.

"In the face of the Committee’s threatened contempt vote, the Attorney General will be compelled to request that the President invoke executive privilege with respect to the materials subject to the subpoena," Boyd wrote in the letter to Nadler, which The Hill obtained.

"I hereby request that the Committee hold the subpoena in abeyance and delay any vote on whether to recommend a citation of contempt for non-compliance with the subpoena, pending the President’s termination of this question," he added.

A committee aide told The Hill that Nadler plans to go forward with the contempt proceedings on Wednesday.

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