White House says it won’t try to block Comey’s testimony

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump won’t try to use executive privilege to block former FBI Director James Comey from testifying this week, the White House said Monday, ruling out an option that legal experts said would have been nearly impossible to carry out.

For several days, White House aides had kept alive speculation that Trump might try to invoke executive privilege to block Comey’s scheduled appearance before a Senate panel this week.

But White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders officially called a halt to the talk on Monday, declaring that “the president will not invoke executive privilege.”

Despite the widespread speculation about executive privilege, many legal experts said the idea bordered on absurdity.

The doctrine of executive privilege holds that under certain circumstances, the president can order government officials not to talk to Congress about confidential advice they have given. The executive branch can use the privilege as a shield to prevent officials from being forced to testify against their will.

But Comey is no longer a government official, since Trump fired him, and is testifying voluntarily. To invoke executive privilege to block him, the White House would have had to go to federal court and persuade a judge to issue an order forbidding Comey from talking.

An order of that sort almost certainly would have been challenged as a violation of Comey’s right to free speech as well as Congress’ right to hear testimony about public policy. It also would have been politically unfeasible.