Trump may try to suppress key part of Mueller’s findings

Bloomberg

The White House may try to block portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report from being shared with Congress and the public in a fight that could end up before the Supreme Court.
Mueller may submit his findings on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign to the Justice Department as early as February, according to one US official. After that, things could get messy.
Democrats who now control the House have said they’ll demand that the department hand over the report — and that they intend to make it public.
The White House may counter by asserting executive privilege to prevent key findings from being turned over, according to people familiar with internal deliberations.
Under the federal regulation that authorises special counsels, Mueller is required only to submit his report to department leaders. There’s no mandate that any part of Mueller’s findings be provided to Congress or the public.
What happens next would be decided by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker or by William Barr, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, if he’s confirmed by the Senate by then. In the past, both have criticised Mueller’s investigation into whether anyone around Trump colluded in the Russian meddling and whether the president sought to obstruct the probe.

Executive Privilege
Trump and his lawyers expect to get an advance look at the report if there’s a chance it will be shared beyond the Justice Department. They may assert executive privilege to withhold any information related to Trump’s time in the White House or during the transition, depending on what’s included.
“We will look at it and see if the president thinks there is a valid claim and if there is, do we want to make it,” said Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “We reserve the right. We don’t know if we have to, but we haven’t waived it.”
Giuliani said the White House would be willing to fight in court to preserve material it considers privileged. Executive privilege is the long-disputed doctrine used by a number of presidents who have argued that they must be able to keep internal deliberations private to protect their ability to get candid advice from aides.
It’s an option that Trump’s team has intentionally kept open, the people familiar with White House deliberations said. The White House voluntarily turned over tens of thousands of pages of records to Mueller’s investigators, avoiding a subpoena fight with the special prosecutor.
The lawyers believe that preserved the president’s option to assert later that the information can’t be shared outside of the executive branch.