The Importance Of Executive Privilege In The United States

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Executive Privilege is a controversial presidential power that is recognized by the courts but is nowhere mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Executive Privilege is often used by presidents to hide information that may be incriminating or detrimental to their party or political standing. Many historians and politicians have claimed that executive privilege is not real and question whether it is constitutional for presidents and other members of the executive branch to withhold documents and testimony from congress.
As defined in the dictionary, Executive Privilege is the principle that members of the executive branch of government cannot legally be forced to disclose their confidential communications when such disclosure would adversely affect the operations or procedures of the executive branch. It is used when documents or testimony, from members of the executive branch, is subpoenaed by congress for judicial proceedings. Executive Privilege was first used by the Washington Administration in 1792. Congress demanded documents and testimony from Washington’s administration about a failed
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Operation fast and furious was an operation designed to target and capture Mexican drug lords. The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, (better known as ATF), conducted the operation were massive amounts of guns were purposely given to Mexican cartels in an attempt to track them and see where they ended up. ATF was unable to monitor the firearms, and all of them ended up in the hands of the Mexican cartels untracked. Many of the guns ended up being found at numerous crime scenes. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Obama and asked him to invoke Executive privilege to prevent these documents from being released. This use of Executive Privilege held up and the documents were never

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