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Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sat Jul 30, 2005 at 10:28:23 AM EST
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From a TalkLeft Reader this morning:

I watched a good part of Hardball last night. I saw [blog]coverage [of it]on Atrios and Crooks and Liars regarding the segment with Jean Schmidt, which I thought deserved their focus. They were right in praising David Gregory for going after her as hard as he did.

However, they ignored something even more important where he did not do as good a job. During his interview with Dan Bartlett, Bartlett asserted that the White House would not be releasing all of Robert's writing while in the Solicitor General's office as they were covered by attorney-client privilege and the president needed to be able to rely on that advice. I shouted at Gregory to follow up, but sadly, he did not challenge Bartlett.

bq..Could you please write an entry debunking this canard? As Republicans are only too aware, Ken Starr won a ruling that said not even communications with White House Counsel are not privileged - the White House Counsel works for the American People and not the president. As long as the president was not receiving private legal advice, it is not privileged. (I also wonder if there is a successor privilege issue as Roberts provided the advice to Ronald Reagan, and not to our current president.)

This hypocrisy and the fact that the White House nonchalantly believes it can successfully peddle it are mind-numbing. We need to call them out on it each and every time.

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    Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege | 4 comments (4 topical)
    Re: Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege (none / 0) (#1)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:45 PM EST
    Its always that way in a third world non country on the make. What a joke of a government, and this joke may someday kill millions of people just like you. Bush needs prison along with most of his business friends of evil.

    Re: Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege (none / 0) (#2)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:47 PM EST
    Where are the righties on this? Anybody?

    Re: Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:47 PM EST
    It overstates the rulings obtained by Ken Starr to say that attorney client privilege isn't available to government lawyers. The Lindesy and Lewinsky rulings focused on underlying accusations of criminal activity, and decided that the interest in preventing it should take priority over assertion of privilege. Since here we're (a) not in court; and (b) not involved in a criminal proceeding, I don't think those precedents apply.

    Re: Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:48 PM EST
    We need to call them on it each and every time. OK, I agree, but just how do we do that?

    Dan Bartlett and Presidential Privilege | 4 comments (4 topical)