House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told the Senate during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday that he “waived” his executive privilege “the moment President Trump said that John Bolton was not telling the truth.”
“You cannot use executive privilege or any other privilege if you waive it,” said Rep. Nadler, who went on to insist that the president waived his own executive privilege by simply saying that former National Security Advisor John Bolton was spreading falsehoods.
“The moment President Trump said that John Bolton was not telling the truth, when he said that the president told him of the improper quid pro quo, he waived any executive privilege that might have existed,” proclaimed Nadler.
Nadler said that the president “cannot characterize a conversation and put it into the public domain and then claim executive privilege against it.”
The congressman also claimed that the president’s counsel was wrong to say that the House failed to act properly with regards to subpoena power.
“They talk about the subpoena power, about the failure of the House to act properly in the subpoena power, because they said the House did not delegate by rule — have a resolution authorizing the committees to author subpoena power,” said Nadler, who insisted that the House “has generally delegated all subpoena power to the committees.”
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