Trump is staking out extreme positions on White House secrecy, legal experts say

CNN: “At this point more than two months before the midterm elections, Democrats retaking control of Congress and its subpoena power is far from certain. But President Donald Trump is already laying down legal markers for how he’ll fight any attempt by lawmakers to investigate him. In a Justice Department memo and legal filings, the Trump administration is arguing that the president can keep secret not just the conversations he has with his advisers within the White House, but that his dealings with individuals outside the government can be shielded as well. The White House is also saying in court that even disclosing the identities of the people who worked on significant policy efforts would infringe upon the presidential confidentiality to which Trump is entitled. And the administration has taken the stance that it can ignore a Watergate-era law prohibiting the destruction of White House documents. The posturing comes as Trump, in his second term, has been notably reliant on a constellation of business moguls, non-government attorneys and old friends to help shape his agenda. “There has been an unprecedented amount of interaction between the Executive Branch — particularly the White House — and the private sector that Congress has made clear is going to be the subject of oversight,” said Jamie Bair, a partner and head of congressional investigations at the law firm Crowell & Moring…”

Source (Slip Opinion) DOJ Office of Legal Counsel – Applicability of Executive Privilege to Presidential Communications with Private Advisers. Executive privilege can apply to presidential communications with private advisers so long as the communications relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and are confidential. August 10, 2026 MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT. The President’s authority to withhold certain sensitive information for the public good, today referred to as executive privilege, is “peculiar to our system of separation of powers” and “derive[s] from the supremacy of each branch within its own assigned area of constitutional duties.” United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 705 (1974); see also Congressional Re- quests for Confidential Executive Branch Information, 13 Op. O.L.C. 153, 154 (1989) (“Congressional Requests”). You have asked whether that privilege, and particularly the presidential communications component of it, permits the President to protect communications that he has with advisers who do not work for the Executive Branch. Determining whether the privilege applies to any specific communication would require additional information about the facts and circum- stances surrounding that communication. But as a general matter, executive privilege can apply to presidential communications with private advisers so long as the communications (1) relate to official presidential decisionmaking, (2) involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and (3) are confidential…”