| President Trump on Wednesday opened a new front in a war with Democrats in Congress. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump told reporters at the White House. In interviews, tweets and during public events this week, the president sounded as agitated and aggrieved as he was before the release last week of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller – a report Trump claims exonerated him. House Democrats, intent on oversight and investigations tied to Trump’s tax returns, White House security clearances and Mueller’s evidence about obstructive behavior have turned to subpoenas to try to force information-sharing with the legislative branch. Trump vows to thwart the efforts using lawsuits, claims of executive privilege and foot-dragging delays within the executive branch. Bottom line: Defying case law and presidential conventions, Trump’s new battles will drag on for months and will stoke Trump’s supporters during his reelection bid. The president assails Democrats in Congress as hyper-partisan, left-wing enemies. Trump lamented during an event in Georgia on Wednesday that Congress has not worked collaboratively on bills to upgrade crumbling infrastructure and to lower prescription drug prices (he plans to meet with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday to discuss years of impasses between Republicans and Democrats over financing roads, bridges, ports and broadband, among other issues). “No Collusion, No Obstruction – there has NEVER been a President who has been more transparent. Millions of pages of documents were given to the Mueller Angry Dems, plus I allowed everyone to testify, including W.H. counsel. I didn’t have to do this, but now they want more,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “We waited for Mueller and WON, so now the Dems look to Congress as last hope!” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) accused Trump and the White House of obstruction of justice after the president ordered administration officials not to cooperate with Congress. Trump and Attorney General William Barr “are now openly ordering federal employees to ignore congressional subpoenas and simply not show up, without any assertion of a valid legal privilege,” Cummings said. “These employees and their personal attorneys should think very carefully about their own legal interests rather than being swept up.” 
© Getty Images The White House directed a former official not to comply with a subpoena to testify about how the West Wing granted security clearances and filed a lawsuit to block disclosure of Trump’s financial records while the Treasury Department blew past two deadlines set by lawmakers to turn over copies of Trump’s tax returns, arguing its legal analysis would not be finished until May. The president’s M.O. during divided government makes clear his well-honed instincts to fight, deny, defy, punish and sue before considering a compromise. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) embraced the idea of fining current and former administration officials who refuse to appear, Bloomberg reported. Cummings proposed to vote to hold those who won’t appear in contempt of Congress. The Hill: Can Trump get away with it? Reuters: How powerful are congressional subpoenas? The Washington Post: Trump’s defiance puts pressure on Congress’s ability to check the president. The Washington Post: The House has the option of using its Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — a three-member panel of Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — to seek approval to take a civil contempt charge to court against the administration. The Associated Press: Trump’s new battle plan is to just say no. The Washington Post: White House declines to let White House senior adviser Stephen Miller testify before House committee. The president on Tuesday suggested, incorrectly, that the Supreme Court is his protector, ready to side with him should he be impeached by Congress (The Hill). Just as interesting as his misunderstanding of the impeachment process is his apparent anxiety about the prospect. Early this week he told reporters he was “not even a little bit” worried about impeachment. Trump may opt to assert executive privilege to prevent White House counsel Don McGahn, who responded to questions posed by Mueller and his team for a reported 30 hours, from testifying to Congress, said White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. “Executive privilege is on the table. That's his right,” she said of the president while speaking with reporters in the White House driveway on Wednesday. “But we should note that there's been a great deal of executive cooperation and compliance." More on the power of Congress to conduct oversight … Georgetown University Law Library’s “Congressional Investigations Research Guide” is HERE … Congressional Research Service: “Although the `power of inquiry’ was not expressly provided for in the Constitution, it has been acknowledged as `an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function’ derived implicitly from Article I’s vesting of `legislative Powers’ in the Congress.” | 
No comments:
Post a Comment