Billy_Bob
Diamond Member
No....
You fail at reading comprehension... He was PRESIDENT ELECT... And that is when it begins...
No.
NO.
Fish v Kobash
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/..._order_compelling_production_of_documents.pdf
"In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court recognized “the presumptive confidentiality of
Presidential communications” as a qualified privilege.
This “privilege of confidentiality of Presidential communications derives from the supremacy of the Executive Branch within
its assigned area of constitutional responsibilities.” The Supreme Court stated the privilege
is necessary because a “President and those who assist him must be free to explore
alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions and to do so in a way
many would be unwilling to express except privately.”
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Defendant states that, though not acting in his capacity as Kansas Secretary of State,
he presented the photographed document to President-elect Trump as a member of the
“transition team” that “aids the President-elect in preparing policies and assuming his official
duties as President as efficiently as possible.” Defendant asserts communications between
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a President-elect and his transition team are entitled to protection because “[a]llowing this
document to be discoverable would jeopardize the right of the President-elect to have
confidential and frank communications within his transition team.”
Defendant’s argument for withholding the photographed document under the
executive privilege is unpersuasive. First, Secretary Kobach’s communication was made to
a president-elect, not to a sitting president.
Although a president-elect by statute and policy
may be accorded security briefings and other transitional prerogatives, he or she has no
constitutional power to make any decisions on behalf of the Executive Branch. No court has
recognized the applicability of the executive privilege to communications made before a
president takes office. If that were the law, it would mean that potentially almost everything
communicated to a president-elect by the hundreds of persons seeking appointments in the
new administration would be shielded by privilege.
In Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, the Supreme Court did recognize that
former presidents may assert privilege over certain communications made during their terms
in office. But the reasoning given by the Court for its decision doesn’t directly translate to
communications with president-elects."
I will go with established Law which shields the President Elect..