Derogation (derogate):
- To take away; detract: an error that will derogate from your reputation.
- To deviate from a standard or expectation; go astray: a clause allowing signers of the agreement to derogate from its principles during a state of emergency. [The Free Dictionary]
Noted in “Michael Cohen, the Attorney-Client Privilege, and the Crime-Fraud Exception,” Paul Rosenzweig, Lawfare:
Let’s begin with a seemingly obvious question: Why do we have an attorney-client privilege in the first place? After all, the privilege is nothing more, nor less, than permission for an attorney to withhold truthful information from investigating authorities. There aren’t many other situations in which we say “you know the truth but you don’t have to tell us.” Quite to the contrary, the general rule is that federal grand jury investigations are entitled to “every man’s evidence.” (Apologies for the traditional, gendered phrase.) As the Supreme Court has put it, the exceptions to this general rule are: “not lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth.”
