The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas for Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson ordered the production of documents to the committee by 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 4. Hicks’ subpoena sets a June 19 date for her to testify in a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, while Donaldson is asked to appear June 24 for a deposition.
Both witnesses are expected to defy their subpoena today on orders from the Trump White House as part of its “total obstruction of Congress” strategy, an impeachable offense.
UPDATE: White House instructs Hope Hicks, former McGahn aide not to comply with congressional subpoenas:
The White House instructed former President Trump aide Hope Hicks and the ex-counsel’s chief of staff not to cooperate with a congressional subpoena for documents related to their White House service.
Add another count of obstruction of Congress to the Articles of Impeachment.
In a statement, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), committee chairman, said the two were told not to cooperate.
“As part of President Trump’s continued obstruction of Congress, the White House has instructed both Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to turn over records in response to subpoenas issued by our committee last month,” Nadler said. “I note that Ms. Hicks has agreed to turn over some documents to the committee related to her time working for the Trump campaign [a period during which there is no possible claim of executive privilege], and I thank her for that show of good faith.”
Nadler said federal law says the documents that left the White House months ago are no longer covered by executive privilege “if they ever were.”
“The president has no lawful basis for preventing these witnesses from complying with our request,” Nadler said. “We will continue to seek reasonable accommodation on these and all our discovery requests and intend to press these issues when we obtain the testimony of both Ms. Hicks and Ms. Donaldson.”
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent a letter Tuesday to Nadler explaining that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had directed Hicks and Donaldson not to provide records or information that involve executive branch material and their time in the White House, the official said.
Cipollone told Nadler that the committee needs to negotiate directly with the White House to determine which records it can obtain.
Democrats are likely to vote on a contempt citation for Hicks and Donaldson should they follow the White House request and refuse to answer questions and turn over documents.
The House will vote June 11 on whether to hold Barr, McGahn in contempt for their defiance of congressional subpoeanas on orders from the Trump White House as part of its “total obstruction of Congress” strategy, an impeachable offense:
“This administration’s systematic refusal to provide Congress with answers and cooperate with congressional subpoenas is the biggest cover-up in American history, and Congress has a responsibility to provide oversight on behalf of the American people,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, said as he announced the contempt votes.
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The announcement comes amid rising frustration among Democrats at what they view as stonewalling by the White House. It also comes on the same day that Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said his panel will vote on whether to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to comply with a bipartisan subpoena for documents on a Trump administration plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
House Democrats also announced Monday they’ll hold a hearing next week focused on the Mueller report and “presidential obstruction.” House to hold hearing on Mueller report, ‘presidential obstruction and other crimes’ (I guess they took the advice of MSNBC host Donny Deutsch to Rebrand Trump “Impeachment” As “Criminal Activity”: “We know Trump broke the law,” Deutsch said. “Here’s the answer, you take it from a binary choice of two lanes, you create a third lane. You take the word impeachment, and you change it to criminal activity.”)
Dems to call Watergate star John Dean to testify on Mueller report:
Dean will be featured on a June 10 panel that also includes former U.S. attorneys and legal experts to discuss Mueller’s evidence that Trump repeatedly attempted to obstruct or constrain his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the committee.
Presumably this testimony will include some of the hundreds of former federal prosecutors who opined in a letter that Mueller laid out sufficient evidence in his report to make an obstruction case. [It now totals 1,005 former prosecutors.]
“These hearings will allow us to examine the findings laid out in Mueller’s report so that we can work to protect the rule of law and protect future elections through consideration of legislative and other remedies,” he added. “Given the threat posed by the president’s alleged misconduct, our first hearing will focus on President Trump’s most overt acts of obstruction. In the coming weeks, other hearings will focus on other important aspects of the Mueller report.”
The committee said in a press release it will also “consider targeted legislative, oversight and constitutional remedies” to tackle those issues.
The committee is still considering a subpoena for Robert Mueller and his team of lawyers to testify. What’s the holdup? Just do it.
UPDATE: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said his panel is planning to hold a “series of hearings” on the first volume of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report examining Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. Schiff says Intel panel will hold ‘series’ of hearings on Mueller report:
Schiff said the first hearing will focus on the original counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling, saying his panel has been unable to get an answer from the FBI or the intelligence community on what became of the original probe.
“We have not been able to get a clear answer yet from the intelligence community or the FBI as to whether that investigation is still open, whether that investigation mushroomed into a set of other counterintelligence investigations, whether it was closed at some time,” Schiff said while speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington, D.C.
“It is troubling that we have not been able to get an answer to that question.”
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Schiff has for weeks raised questions about the fate of a counterintelligence probe that preceded Mueller’s investigation, which is only briefly mentioned in the special counsel’s 448-page report on Russian interference.
Schiff said Tuesday that “a great deal” more could be learned from the counterintelligence investigation than from Mueller’s report, including details on activity that the special counsel did not thoroughly examine as potentially criminal.
“Ultimately Bob Mueller interpreted his charter in a very narrowed way,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s panel has launched its own investigation into President Trump’s finances and the possibility he or members of his inner circle may be subject to foreign compromise.
Schiff has subpoenaed the Justice Department to turn over foreign intelligence and counterintelligence materials generated in the course of Mueller’s investigation as well as the special counsel’s unredacted report and underlying evidence.
The Justice Department agreed to turn over some of the counterintelligence materials last month after Schiff dropped a threat to vote on taking action to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General William Barr.
“The Justice Department has started to provide some of the materials that we have asked for on a rolling basis,” Schiff said Tuesday. “We hope that will continue.”
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Schiff has reiterated the need for Mueller to testify before Congress; House lawmakers could ultimately subpoena him if he does not agree to testify. On Tuesday, Schiff said he has questions for the now ex-special counsel on why he did not apparently dig into Trump’s finances in the course of his investigation.
“It certainly appeared to me over the last few years that Mueller did not follow the money,” Schiff said. “That’s one of the questions I would like to ask him, but there are no indications in the report that that’s something Mueller looked at.”
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Schiff’s panel, along with the House Financial Services Committee, has subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Capital One for financial records related to Trump, but the president is fighting the subpoena in court.
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