The Biden administration has tried to justify this unprecedented step by categorizing the events of Jan. 6 as “unique and extraordinary circumstances.” But as a standard to compel wholesale abandonment of executive privilege, that assessment draws an arbitrary and dangerous line — one that can and will be invoked in the future when the political shoe is on the other foot.

How should this all be resolved? Ideally, all involved would take a deep breath and reconsider ending the tradition of accommodation between the executive and Congress. They would look for other ways to resolve the conflict. Perhaps yet, a politically independent Justice Department will try to do so.

Solutions might include, as we proposed to the committee, withdrawal of the subpoena and agreement on written questions, the answers to which could be parsed as to whether privileged or not, a far better means of addressing privilege issues than the back and forth inherent in a compelled and likely hostile deposition. But if no compromise can be had, it cannot be that my client should have to end the conflict unilaterally — either by risking contempt or by surrendering privilege and agreeing to testify without restriction.