Which presidents invoked executive privilege

Or Bill Clinton, who tried to dodge testimony about Monica Lewinsky and was overruled by the courts. Several of the weapons were then used to commit crimes, including one that was used to kill an American Border Patrol agent. Darrell Issa R-Calif. The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to hold the attorney general in contempt.

The decision will now pass to the House of Representatives for a full vote, which is expected to come before the July 4 break. Update [June 28, ]: The House of Representatives voted to hold Holder in contempt , the first time in history for an attorney general. Most House Democrats, including minority leader Nancy Pelosi, walked out in protest amid the vote.

Journalistic Standards. By submitting comments here, you are consenting to these rules:. What is the limit to its use and how will it be enforced are questions that continue to be debated. Many scholars worried about that problem as soon as U. So presidents have been very reluctant to assert executive privilege, and then the courts have tried to duck the issue, and they can. But the way things are going now, it looks not likely to be duckable — although you never know.

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia. Here's the History of That Presidential Power. By Olivia B. Related Stories. The U. Clinton was eventually impeached by the House but not convicted the Senate, allowing him to finish his second term.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms had run an operation to sell guns to Mexico, in the hope that they could track those weapons to major drug cartels and apprehend some of their members. The guns were not able to be tracked and one was eventually used in the killing of a border patrol agent. Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley held hearings to determine what went wrong during the mission.

Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder both said they did not know about it until a few weeks prior to the killing and did not authorize it. Congress and the Department of Justice ended up in a standoff over the sharing of 1, documents, leading Obama to assert executive privilege in order to keep them private. In retaliation, Congress voted to cite Holder for contempt of Congress. Clearly, in the last half-century, executive privilege has lost some of its luster. But while executive privilege may be on the ropes after several defeats in court over the years, history indicates that President Donald J.

Trump and future Presidents will continue to call upon this power—and the courts will continue to judge its necessity. Chris Calabrese is an intern at the National Constitution Center. He is also a recent graduate of St. Toggle navigation. George Washington As with so much of the presidency, George Washington set the precedent for executive privilege. Dwight D. Richard Nixon While the previous two Presidents helped to define executive privilege, President Richard Nixon was the one who really brought it to the forefront of American politics.