President Trump recently said that should the Senate subpoena senior administration officials to testify in his impeachment trial, he would invoke executive privilege to block them from appearing. He explained that he would take this step “for the sake of the office” and also for the benefit of “any future presidents.”

His former national security adviser, John Bolton, has said he would testify in the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed, and Senate Democrats argue that other high-ranking administrative officials with firsthand knowledge of President Trump’s efforts to extort political dirt on the Bidens from the Ukrainian government should also be called to testify, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff; and former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

Can President Trump actually stop the Senate from hearing from these key witnesses? In a word, no.

The Senate will decide for itself whether to call witnesses and the extent to which it will recognize claims of executive privilege if raised. Moreover, the federal courts are almost certain to defer to the Senate’s rulings on executive privilege because the Constitution vests the Senate with “the sole power to try all impeachments.” The Supreme Court has squarely held that the federal courts will not review the Senate’s exercise of this constitutional authority.

The president’s radically expansive understanding of executive privilege lacks legal merit. What’s more, if the Senate takes seriously Mr. Trump’s absolutist position, the chamber will be establishing a startlingly dangerous precedent: that Congress lacks the constitutional authority to investigate effectively criminal wrongdoing within the highest levels of the executive branch, in this instance, allegations of bribery and misuse of government office for personal gain. This would be a disabling abdication of its rights and obligations as a separate branch of government. Future Congresses would quickly come to regret such an abrogation.