Former White House counsel John Dean said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tweets on the Russia investigation could negate any of his claims of executive privilege should he be subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"There is a real argument that can be made that his tweets do waive some of his potential claims of executive privilege," Dean, who counseled President Richard Nixon and was implicated in the Watergate scandal, told Brooke Baldwin on CNN.
Trump hinted Wednesday on Twitter he might invoke executive privilege and challenge Mueller should he be subpoenaed before a federal grand jury.
He retweeted comments from former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova, an unofficial legal adviser, on the Mueller questions leaked to the The New York Times on Monday:
President Trump's post came as news reports disclosed Emmet Flood, President Bill Clinton's lawyer during his impeachment proceedings, was replacing the retiring Ty Cobb on his personal legal team.
In his interview, Dean described executive privilege as "not a highly refined, but very qualified, privilege that is fought really on a political basis more than a legal basis.
"Unlike, say, attorney-client privilege, where there's lot of case law.
"That doesn't exist with executive privilege," he told Baldwin.
"It's typically invoked in front of Congress, seldom with the courts, so these are pretty vague areas.
"I think the fact that he has tweeted on many of these subject matters, a court would say: 'Look, Mr. President, you've already talked about that. How can you claim privilege?'"
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