U.S.: Subpoena battles- Democrats vs. Trump
Politics
Democrats unveil new strategy in subpoena battles with Trump
MARY CLARE JALONICK,Associated Press 7 hours ago
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By Eagle Rock
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are poised to make it easier for their committee chairmen to take President Donald Trump’s administration to court, escalating their legal efforts against a president who has vowed to fight “all of the subpoenas.”
A resolution unveiled Thursday would authorize contempt cases against Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Donald McGahn for failing to comply with subpoenas. It would also empower committee chairmen to take legal action to enforce subpoenas in the future without a vote of the full House, so long as they have approval from a bipartisan group of House leaders. Democrats have the majority on the five-person group.
Trump’s vow to stonewall House Democrats has left them with few good options outside the courtroom to pursue investigations of the president.
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Barr defied a subpoena to provide an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report, along with underlying evidence from the report. McGahn, who is frequently referenced in the report, has defied subpoenas to provide documents and testify before the Judiciary Committee.
The White House directed McGahn not to comply with requests for documents during his tenure there, and has also directed other witnesses not to comply. Former communications director Hope Hicks and a former aide to McGahn, Annie Donaldson, also defied subpoenas this week at the request of the White House. The administration said they don’t have the legal right to turn over documents from their time working for Trump.
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The House is scheduled to vote on the resolution Tuesday. By allowing committee chairs to act without a House vote in the future, leaders can avoid tying up precious floor time — and also prevent Democrats from more conservative districts from taking multiple votes on contempt resolutions. Many of those members have said they would prefer to be working on policy instead of investigations of the president.
At the opposite end of the Democratic caucus, several of the most liberal members are pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open impeachment proceedings against Trump. But Pelosi has so far rejected that option, preferring a slower, more methodical approach to investigating the president — including the court fights.
As part of the step-by-step effort endorsed by Pelosi, the Judiciary Committee will hold a series of hearings on “crimes and other misconduct” in Mueller’s report, starting with a hearing on Monday, the day before the contempt votes, on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. That hearing will feature John Dean, who was White House counsel for President Richard Nixon, and former U.S. attorneys.
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RELATED NEWS:
House Dems To Make It Easier To Find Trump Aides In Contempt, Bring Them To Court
Ryan J. Reilly,HuffPost 8 hours ago
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By Eagle Rock
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are set to vote next week on a resolution that would make it easier for the House of Representatives to drag members of the Trump administration to court ― and to find them in contempt ― for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas.
The resolution will also declare Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress, and authorize the civil enforcement of subpoenas in federal court.
The House Rules Committee is expected to take up the resolution on Monday evening, and the full House could take it up on Tuesday.
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President Donald Trump’s administration has been blowing off congressional oversight. The resolution would authorize the Office of General Counsel of the House to represent the House in pursuing civil litigation to force Barr and McGahn to comply with congressional subpoenas. The Barr and McGahn subpoenas grew out of the special counsel report authored by Robert Mueller.
House Democrats wanted to see the full Mueller report and its underlying evidence, as well as get evidence from McGahn about Trump’s aborted attempt to fire Mueller.
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“We will not allow this president and his administration to turn a blind eye to the rule of law,” Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Rules Committee, said in a statement. “Enough is enough. This resolution will allow Congress to hold the president accountable while this Democratic Majority continues delivering on issues like health care and jobs.”
Democratic aides said they were still willing to work with the Justice Department to reach an accommodation to avert a contempt vote, but said the administration has refused to negotiate unless they take the contempt vote off the table.
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