Fun With Fake Privilege

Today’s cartoon is partly based on something you probably don’t know anything about. I hate to have to explain a cartoon, or even part of it, but I feel I must with this one.

President Biden has used a set of the White House for a few speeches, instead of doing them in the actual White House. It’s a sound stage located in the Eisenhower Executive Building which is a part of the White House grounds. It’s the kind of place you’ve seen without knowing you’re seeing it. When Al Gore gave his concession speech in 2000, it was from this building, perhaps in the same room as the one containing the sound stage. Ever watch the TV show Veep? Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character’s office is in this building. Even Donald Trump has used it for signing documents in front of cameras. When President Biden got his first vaccine on camera, he did it in this room. Trump took his vaccine in a closet.

Why do they use this set instead of the White House? I’m not sure. Maybe you can get more people into it. Maybe the lighting is better. Baby Goebbels Steven Miller claims Biden uses it because he can use a monitor there that won’t reflect on his glasses or something like that, that can’t be used in the White House for some reason. But, Republicans are freaking out about this because President Biden has used it with a set that looks like it’s from the White House. There’s a fake Rose Garden behind him. For Republicans, this is as much of an outrage as mustard on a burger or a president in a grey suit. The reason you have not heard of this outrage is because it’s a fake outrage.

While people on Fox News are outraged, Qanon has used it as evidence that President Joe Biden is not president and Donald Trump is still in charge and in the actual White House. Never mind all the events, speeches, and videos of President Biden in the White House, or the fact Trump hasn’t been in the capital since inauguration day when he fled to Mar-a-Lago with his tail between his legs.

This is fake outrage over a fake White House set by a bunch of fake patriots who believe in a fake president. Their fake president believes he has fake authority, like executive privilege.

The January 6 Committee investigating Trump’s coup attempt and attack on the Capitol have subpoenaed individuals from the Trump administration and documents. Trump has claimed executive privilege over the documents and is telling his subpoenaed goons not to cooperate. Goons like Steve Bannon, who already did so much gooning for Trump that he had to get a Trump pardon.

Trump is trying to assert privilege over 45 specific documents identified by the National Archives as responsive to the committee’s request. Those documents, Trump said in a two-page letter to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, included protected “presidential communications,” as well as deliberative process materials and attorney-client privileged materials.

Trump also wants to preemptively declare future requests by the panel, “potentially numbering in the millions,” as presumptively barred from release. He wrote, or some lawyer for him, “Should the committee persist in seeking other privileged information, I will take all necessary and appropriate steps to defend the Office of the Presidency.”

It’s funny to hear someone claim they’re “protecting the presidency” after he tried to replace it with a fascist dictatorship.

A lawyer for Steve Bannon told the House committee that Bannon would refuse to comply with any subpoenas or investigation because of Trump’s claim he can invoke executive privilege to block Bannon’s testimony. Even if Trump can invoke executive privilege, Bannon was years removed from the White House, was not a part of the Trump administration at the time of the election or attack on the Capitol, and is not Trump’s lawyer. Trump, even if was still president, cannot claim every conversation he has is privileged. Also, you don’t have attorney-client privilege when your attorney was a partner in your criminal activities. Ask Michael Cohen.

Here’s the fun part, kids: President Biden, the actual president, is not going to allow Trump to invoke executive privilege over the documents the committee seeks. White House counsel Dana Remus wrote the National Archive, where these documents are being preserved, “After my consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, President Biden has determined than an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the Documents.”

Trump has 30 days to challenge this in court, which will also be an acknowledgement that Biden won the election. But, I expect this court challenge to fail like most Trump challenges in courts fail. Maybe he should get Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani to argue the case. Oops, that’s right. Rudy can’t practice law in New York City or Washington, D.C. right now because he’s been cited for lying in court. Lawyers aren’t supposed to do that. Plus, Rudy may be a witness. Also, Sidney should be a witness. But, it’s going to be fun to watch a former president (sic) challenge the authority of a current president.

What the House needs to do is charge every Trump goon who refuses to comply with criminal contempt. They refused to charge non-complying witnesses during the Trump administration, like when John Bolton didn’t want to testify and give out information he was saving for his crappy book.

House Democrats, the Biden/Garland Justice Department, and Joe Biden, the real president, need to come down hard in this investigation. The people they are seeking to testify aided and abetted a criminal act. These people tried to destroy our democracy and overturn an election through violence. There needs to be accountability.

And the final accountability will be Trump going to prison. And I’m talking about a real prison, not a fake one.

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