Mark Meadows agreed to cooperate with the Select Committee and answer questions on the condition that he retained the right to honor “executive privilege” even though the current DOJ has ruled that executive privilege doesn’t apply to personal testimony by Trump employees, the issue about documents is before the DC Court of Appeals.

Given that Trump has a huge problem with the “unselect committee” the decision could not have made Trump happy and when Trump is not happy with someone they tend to have a choice, they either do their duty and pray for the best (and we don’t know the entirety of those consequences), or you do what Trump wants and pray for the best (and we don’t know what consequences might have been avoided). We suspect that Trump gave Meadows some things to consider, even though he continued to say he would avoid anything touching on executive privilege.

Well, tonight Meadows went on Hannity to answer questions about July 6th and some touched upon executive privilege. There were a couple of caveats, though. Meadows was not sworn in prior to going on Hannity. Additionally, Hannity set up questions that touched upon executive privilege that Meadows wanted to answer… though, again, remember, he was not under oath and listen to his answer carefully. First, he definitely touched on “executive privilege when talking about the fact that Trump did make sure the national guard was available (One might follow-up with “what does that mean, available?”) but more interestingly, he said that “no one in the West Wing that I know of’ had advance knowledge that security was going to be breached at the Capitol.”

The much more logical statement is “No one in the West Wing had advance knowledge that security was going to be breached.” That is the answer that one would expect from someone who represented a West Wing that was shocked by what happened. He leaves the door open, and it is likely not by accident. Then we go below:

Meadows: The President has claimed executive privilege. I’m going to honor that. Not going to be the first Chief of Staff to waive that. It’s not mine to waive. pic.twitter.com/FCmx10ovHj

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 8, 2021

“The president” is not the president anymore, and DOJ has already said that previous Trump administrative employees do not violate executive privilege by testifying. He is borrowing Trump’s line and Trump’s not the president. He says it is not “congress’s job to waive it” even though no one ever said it was. DOJ made the decision.

Meadows is hoping that the litigation and fight over documents and Trump’s claim to reverse privilege will cover him, at least to the extent that Donald Trump cannot blame him. Plus, he’s trying to buy time, while avoiding being charged with contempt of Congress.

Yet it’s noteworthy that Meadows was happy to answer a question covered directly by executive privilege about the national guard. Every privilege ever recognized in court can be waived by someone that breaks that privilege with a third party. Once waived, it’s gone, totally. One can and should make the argument that Meadows just waived his right to claim executive privilege.

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[email protected] and on Substack: Trump in a Panic