The Way Trump is Asserting The Rights of His Office is Not Impeachable

(This opinion editorial was first published in The Washington Post on May 1, 2019.)

Never before have so many congressional committees issued so many subpoenas demanding documents and testimony from so many executive-branch officials, with so little attempt at negotiation or accommodation. President Trump says he will invoke executive privilege on “all” of them. Attorney General William P. Barr balks at appearing before a House committee to discuss the Mueller report without changes in the format. Democrats threaten impeachment, and solemn commentators proclaim that Trump’s refusal to comply subverts America’s constitutional system of checks and balances. (Continue reading the article on The Washington Post’s page here.)

Michael W. McConnell, a former federal appellate judge, is a law professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.