Adjunct Professor Joel Cohen wrote an op-ed in The Hill about the relationship of the President with his Attorney General.
Now that William H. Barr is confirmed as attorney general, how free will President Trump feel to confide in him — meaning, to expect attorney-client-like confidentiality — about challenging aspects of the investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York?
When John F. Kennedy was president and his brother was attorney general, few doubted that Bobby Kennedy would take his brother’s secrets to the grave. JFK didn’t have to rely on “executive privilege” to know that even a congressional committee couldn’t extract their private discussions.
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The immediate question, for now, is this: How free will the president feel to speak openly with his new attorney general about the many investigations concerning him? The answer largely depends on whether President Trump continues to see the attorney general as “his” attorney general. And make no mistake, whatever the president thinks, the courts, if called upon, may see it quite differently.