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If the president does, he and Congress can haggle over whether it is a valid assertion, McCarthy said. He said Sessions could then answer in writing or return to answer them in person, if necessary.

DiGenova, the former U.S. attorney, said complaints by Democrats are sheer hypocrisy.

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“The [Barack] Obama administration made this a way of life,” he said. “For them to complain is utter nonsense.”

In perhaps the most egregious example, then-Attorney General Eric Holder claimed executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents related to the ill-fated Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives undercover gun-running operation, known as “Fast and Furious.” His refusal prompted the House of Representatives in June 2012 to hold him on contempt of Congress.

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Only 17 Democrats voted with the Republican majority. More than 100 Democrats stormed out of the chamber to protest the legitimacy of the vote. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it “shameful.” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) called it “destructive, election-year politics.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called it a “a sad failure.”

Defenders of the current administration express similar sentiments now.

“It has been my view from the very beginning that this has been an initiative with no facts, almost singularly designed to drive the president from office,” said Michael Johns, president and executive director of the Tea Party Community organization.

Johns said he is exasperated that too many congressional Republicans have been willing to aid and abet the Democrats, and ignore what he regards as the true scandal — the unmasking of Americans caught up in the surveillance of foreign agents and the leaking of classified information for political purposes.

“We don’t have Republican leadership in both houses willing to call this out and steer this investigation where it should go,” he said.