Donald Trump is fighting to keep anyone who ever worked in his White House from testifying to the House—at least about anything meaningful like Russia or obstruction of justice—so House Democrats are looking at Trump’s non-White House inner circle. If someone didn’t work in the Trump administration, the thinking goes, he can’t assert executive privilege to keep them from talking.
That means people like Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was abruptly fired from the Trump transition team, and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski could be called to testify. “These people could be called without any reasonable shred of a claim of executive privilege,” according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Or “Where’s Paul Manafort? He’s in a prison somewhere. He’s readily available. Get him a suit. Get him a haircut. Have him testify,” a law professor suggested.
Underscoring just how scared Trump is of these investigations, the White House seems to be getting ready to claim executive privilege over even outsiders, telling the House Oversight Committee that “The Executive Branch's confidentiality interests are not limited solely to communications directly involving the President and other Executive Branch officials.” And there’s the thing: if trying to get Lewandowski to talk—and good luck on that—is supposed to avoid foot-dragging and legal challenges, but the White House has made it clear that it will challenge that, too, then Democrats might as well focus their efforts on enforcing subpoenas on current and former White House staffers. If the way you were going to try to get around delays is going to end up delayed in the same way, redouble your efforts on Plan A.