THE FBI’S RAID OF TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO AND THE LIMITS OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE

Each president of the United States is afforded a right to withhold sensitive information from other branches of the U.S. government in order to maintain confidential communication within the executive branch. Many presidents have invoked this executive privilege. However, this right is not absolute; the Supreme Court has set some restrictions on executive privilege. After examining former President Donald Trump’s invocation of executive privilege in keeping sensitive documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago after his presidential term expired and reviewing the history of executive privilege, its origin and its previous uses and limits, I argue that executive privilege can have more limits following the Trump administration; however, the current limits will be sufficient to prevent former President Trump from misusing executive privilege in this case.