Can Trump use executive privilege to stall the Jan. 6 investigation ...

Here’s how.It’s a loose legal protection for the president and top White House aides designed to give them confidentiality as they make tough decisions while governing, without fearing that those private conversations will be scrutinized by Congress.Every modern president has leaned on executive privilege heavily when they don’t want to give information to Congress, but Trump took it to a new level. The committee asked for answers to questions including:Their records requests indicate that they’re also looking into Trump’s broader efforts to fight his election loss and replace top government officials with his own loyalists, reports The Washington Post’s John Wagner.Trump responded with a fiery statement: "Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my Administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our Nation.”He hasn’t officially asserted executive privilege in a letter to the Biden administration, but it sure sounds like he will.It’s not up to Trump whether he gets to claim executive privilege for information within the federal government. That created such a political firestorm that Congress backed down before the question of former presidents and executive privilege got settled in courts.The Biden administration has been willing to waive executive privilege for very significant people in Trump’s orbit who the committee wants to talk to.This summer, the Biden administration said that former Justice Department officials who worked under Trump were free to provide “unrestricted testimony” to the committee.That’s a problem for Trump.