Former US Attorney cautions Giuliani colleague he's sadly mistaken he thinks he has executive privilege
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance explained that Rudy Giuliani's colleague, Bernard Kerik, submitted documents to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Some of those documents, however, he's attempting to claim "executive privilege" on.
Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday, Vance explained that someone who never worked in the White House can't claim executive privilege. It's the same tactic that Steve Bannon attempted and it not only didn't work, he was indicted by the Justice Department for criminal contempt.
"President [Donald] Trump pardoned him in Feb. 2020, and so his relationship, Kerik's relationship with Rudy Giuliani — he'd often been on his security detail, apparently blossomed into that pardon," said Vance. "One might assume that there's some loyalty there. Kerik has turned over some documents through his attorneys. They did it in that traditional news dump -- the best news dump of the year, right, New Year's Eve, when everything gets lost. But what's interesting here is that he withheld some documents, claiming privilege, even though he wasn't part of the executive branch."
What she found interesting was that Kerik gave a detailed list, called a "privilege log," of documents he was withholding.
"And some of these documents indicate that there may be details about efforts to get a recount and start the perpetuation of the big lie following the 2020 election," Vance also said.
She noted that it's probably an indication that the committee should have Kerik testify under oath instead of as a voluntary interview.
"That may be the fact that there's been some animosity," Vance explained. "He talked about not trusting the committee and insisted on releasing documents publicly so that they couldn't be mischaracterized. But it's very likely that there's more to it here, and the committee believes that they need to get a statement from Kerik under oath. He was around Trump following the election. He has said before in some of his public appearances that he was with Trump when Trump spoke with then-attorney Bill Barr about the need to secure votes in the election. So, lots of good reasons to get him under oath."
She went on to say she found it amusing that Kerik is former law enforcement official and he thinks he gets to set the terms of the investigation.
See the interview below:
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