And so it begins.
In the most gangster move since Democrats took over the House, the House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation so sweeping that some 80 people have received requests for documents to determine whether President Donald Trump, his administration and associates obstructed justice, abused power of just outright did some corruptible shit.
On Monday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the head of the committee has requested all the documents...All. Of. Them.
“We have seen the damage done to our democratic institutions in the two years that the Congress refused to conduct responsible oversight,” Nadler said in a statement Monday, Time magazine reports. “Congress must provide a check on abuses of power. Equally, we must protect and respect the work of Special Counsel, but we cannot rely on others to do the investigative work for us.”
From Time:
Included in the requests were the Trump Organization, as well as several employees invoked by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen during his hearing last week before the House oversight committee: Chief Financial Official Allen Weisselberg, Executive Vice President Matthew Calamari, and President Trump’s longtime personal assistant Rhona Graff. The President’s two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., also received requests, as did the White House and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Nadler defined obstruction of justice as any interference from President Trump and his associates in criminal investigations and any “alleged cover-up violations of the law,” and public corruption as any possible violation of of the emolument clause and “conspiracy to violate federal campaign and financial reporting laws. Abuse of power was defined in part as “attempts to misuse the power of the Office of the Presidency,” which also included attacks on the press, law enforcement and judiciary.
Broadly speaking, this means that a panoply of topics and people that are already being investigated by either Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Southern District of New York – or both – are now under an additional microscope from Congress. Weisselberg, for instance, was reportedly given immunity by the Southern District of New York to testify against Cohen, button faces questions from Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee is also seeking information from several people involved in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe including Cohen Michael Flynn, Sam Nunberg and George Papadopoulos.
Nadler warned ABC News, Sunday, that “his committee was planning on issuing the document requests, and that Weisselberg and the White House would be included, but declined to provide additional specifics,” Time reports.
So the heat is on and everyone has until March 18 to get all their ducks in a row and have them submitted to the committee of face deportation. Fine, they won’t actually be deported but whatever.
“The Counsel’s Office and relevant White House officials will review it and respond at the appropriate time,” The Devil’s mouthpiece aka White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday.
And get this, the was reportedly on the first wave of document request as more are coming, according to a committee counsel, Time reports.