Here's how the White House might try to block Mueller from testifying

President Trump really doesn't want Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before Congress, and the White House may have one last trick up its sleeve to prevent that from happening.

Last week, White House lawyer Emmet Flood sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr advising him not to provide Congress with any more information regarding Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. But the letter also hit on an important piece of information that skirted under the radar last week. Flood writes that Trump administration officials who interviewed with Mueller's team of investigators did not, in fact, waive executive privilege.

Instead, the letter argues that the officials and Mueller's office agreed to an understanding that information gleaned from the White House was "presumptively privileged" because it could have been the subject of a potential executive privilege claim.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It sounds like a stretch and there is not currently anything else that verifies this agreement between the two sides, but with Mueller tentatively set to appear before Congress on May 15, the White House could try to block the special counsel's testimony using "presumptive privilege" as a shield.