https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-jud...225148350.htmlWASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a congressional subpoena seeking his testimony about President Donald Trump's efforts to impede the now-completed federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a judge ruled on Monday.
In an important case about presidential powers, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington rejected the Trump administration's legal claim that current and former senior White House officials cannot be compelled to testify before Congress.
McGahn, who left his post in October 2018, last May defied a subpoena from the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee for testimony. The subpoena was issued months before the House opened an impeachment inquiry in September into the Republican president's actions concerning Ukraine. The committee sued McGahn in August to try to enforce the subpoena.
Jackson's ruling concerns only McGahn's testimony. But by rejecting Trump's key legal argument for defying congressional subpoenas it could give other former and current presidential advisers a legal basis for cooperating with the ongoing House impeachment inquiry, legal experts said.
The Trump administration has refused to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry as well as other Democratic-led investigations and has directed current and former officials to defy subpoenas for do ents and testimony. There are other legal fights over subpoenas seeking Trump tax and financial records.
McGahn emerged as a pivotal figure in the 448-page report completed in March by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 election, through a campaign of hacking and propaganda, as well as extensive contacts between Trump's campaign and Moscow.
Mueller's report, released in redacted form in April, revealed about 10 instances in which Trump took actions aimed at impeding the investigation. Mueller did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice, though Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, afterward decided that the president had not committed obstruction.
When the committee sued McGahn in August, it said it needed to speak with him to help lawmakers decide whether to include Trump's actions toward the Mueller investigation as part of an impeachment inquiry.
According to the Mueller report, McGahn told Mueller's team that Trump repeatedly instructed him to have the special counsel removed and then asked him to deny having been so instructed when word of the action emerged in news reports. McGahn did not carry out either instruction.
McGahn's relationship with Trump was strained by events of the Mueller investigation. Trump replaced him with Pat Cipollone, who still holds the job.
Several aides and advisers to Trump were charged in the Mueller investigation. All but two pleaded guilty, while longtime adviser Roger Stone and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort were convicted by juries. Mueller said he found insufficient evidence to charge Trump with criminal conspiracy concerning Russia.
House Democratic leaders have focused their impeachment inquiry on Ukraine, but have discussed pursuing a broader count of obstruction of Congress among any articles of impeachment - formal charges - brought against Trump. McGahn's testimony could bolster that part of their inquiry.
House passage of any articles of impeachment would lead to a trial in the Senate on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office. The Senate is controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, who have shown little support for removing him.
(Reuters, via Yahoo finance)
McGahn ruling could open up the floodgates.A court ruling could open door to Bolton testimony in impeachment inquiry
A federal judge on Monday is expected to rule on whether the U.S. House of Representatives can compel the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn.
And the judge has signaled she will side with Congress.
That ruling could provide cover for other current and former White House officials, such as erstwhile National Security Adviser John Bolton, to testify before lawmakers in a presidential impeachment inquiry.
Bolton has so far refused to appear before lawmakers looking into whether Donald Trump abused his office by trying to pressure Ukraine into digging up dirt on a potential political rival.
Numerous witnesses testified that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani led the effort, despite protest from diplomats and members of the National Security Council.
Bolton next? That would be gooood.
We are dealing with criminals - with the criminal traitor being the ring leader -
please know that they will not comply with anything.
It is what criminals do.
People who have respect for the rule of law would comply with a judges orders.
Trump has zero respect and gives zero s about law -and above all -
Putin is salivating at the thought of ordering Trump to defy even a court order - thereby causing a REAL Cons utional crisis.
SO
get ready to hear that phrase over and over when trump orders his criminals to tell the judge to go herself.
Feel free to criticize Trump at any time, Darrin.
I think that cult listing of "signs you might be in a cult" hit too close to home for you. It was kind of scary how many parallels it had with you Trump s.
scared of a teenage girl
I expect ALL of Trash's WH mafiya still refuse to testify and it will go to SCOTUS.
Dems should ask SCOTUS for immediate ruling
Subpoena the Dear Leader himself.
when you are cornered or cant respond to a question, post a picture of a teenage girl because GOTCHA mother er!
the cult would lose its collective mind and threaten civil war -
but it would be awesome
Has it occurred to you that it no longer matters how much worse things will get?
Essentially, the right wing prefers bare knuckles fascism to republican niceties.
Right wing is down with the Trump family cult. It doesn't want a fluid alternation of power.
"One ring to rule the all, one ring to find them...etc.,"
(Eye of Sauron)
Nazgul!
Last edited by Winehole23; 11-25-2019 at 10:14 PM.
$14K... How do politicians like this keep getting away with that?
Trump's GOP. SMH
Schiff says he wants to speak with cons uents before deciding on impeachment
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...mpeachment?amp
That is what appears to be happening. The right has been losing any pretense of giving a about democracy and that process started when they gerrymandered the out of things in 2010 and before.
The smarter ones like TSA don't believe the bull , and the brainwashed idiots like Chris don't care.
At this point it is really a bit like a bully trying to pick on someone. "own the libs" is the only thing that matters.
The evangelical right is Wormtongue clouding the mind of the king.
Defections of moderates will continue.
https://politicaldig.com/lifelong-go...ing-the-party/
"Defections of moderates will continue."
the handful of defectors won't stop the much more numreous Repug faithful who know where their money and power comes from.
The continued degradation and descent of the Repug party as cheap s to the traitorous, rapacious oligarchy is why
America is ed and un able.
Assuming they keep the House and with the WH, the BigDollar Corporate Dems will not even try to repair the destruction of US govt since 2010, thereby enabling the oligarchy to continue and benefit from the control of America.
eg, have the HouseDems, now in control of spending for two years, refinanced, eg, the IRS after the Repugs defunded IRS by nearly $1B?
The "nondelegation" issue before SCOTUS, with sexual predator/drunken holdout K signalling he's ready to join the other 4 SCOTUS s, could disempower Congress and empower the Federal judiciary which has been corrupted for decades by the oligarchy's young, incompetent, inexperienced, extreme right wing ideologues in robes.
====================
Nondelegation doctrine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondelegation_doctrine
===================
Brett Kavanaugh Is Ready to Join the Supreme Court’s Conservatives to Tear Down Key Federal Regulations
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...eme-court.html
Don't forget, Pence knew. President Pelosi will Make America Great Again.
No, she won't. She has not been doing after winning the House in 2018
Don't forget, Pence knew. President Pelosi will Make America Great Again.
Adam Schiff is running the Impeachment Inquiry. You honestly think Pelosi isn't helping him behind the scenes? Remember, Schiff is an attorney so he is the ideal candidate to run these proceedings.
Just because she's not front and center of the news cycle doesn't mean she's not doing anything. IJS
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