Reading Room Document

Congressional Demand for Depositicn of Counsel to the President Fred F. Fielding

This opinion concludes that the White House Counsel has a privilege not to testify to any matters relating to his official duties in response to a congressional demand for information. The opinion further concludes that agreeing to testify in response to "this particular Congressional demand" could "erode a central foundation of Executive privilege and severely chill internal deliberations." The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://www.justice.gov/olc/page/file/1225996/download.

July 23, 1982