The Trump Administration has been refusing to publicly release 20 e-mails pertaining to President Donald Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine in 2019, insisting that executive privilege protects them from having to do so. But Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge and Barack Obama appointee who sentenced Trump ally Roger Stone to three years in federal prison, disagrees — and she has ordered the Trump Administration to release the e-mails.
Jackson’s decision, reporter Jerry Lambe notes in Law & Crime, “stems from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the New York Times, which sought communications between Michael Duffey, principal associate director for national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Robert Blair, a senior advisor to then-Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.”
Trump and his allies have been arguing that keeping the e-mails from being released publicly is a matter of national security and that a sitting president can claim executive privilege on such matters. OMB Deputy General Counsel Heather Walsh argued that making the e-mails available to the public would “risk harming the quality of the information and advice.” Continue reading.