The White House is continuing its efforts to defy Congress as new reports note that the Trump administration has directed former White House counsel Donald McGahn not to comply with a Congressional subpoena related to Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Despite McGahn now being a private citizen, the White House is arguing that asking for documents related to Mueller’s Russia investigation fall under McGahn’s time as White House counsel and are therefore privileged information.
Those documents “remain legally protected from disclosure under longstanding constitutional principles, because they implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests and executive privilege,”current White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter Tuesday, NBC News reports. Cipollone added that the House Judiciary Committee “does not have the legal right to disclose these documents.”
McGahn and his documents were subpoenaed last month by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), as the panel was attempting to investigate whether president obstructed justice.
But the current White House counsel shut that down, as they’ve been doing with several committee requests. Not only did Cipollone say that McGahn won’t be producing documents but added that all subsequent requests should be sent directly to the White House so he can Dikembe Mutombo those shits himself.
Oh and get this, Cipollone added that the Justice Department “is aware of and concurs with this legal position” and this makes sense considering that this department is run by Mr. William “Yabaa Dabba Doo Anything the President Wants” Barr.
McGahn faced a Tuesday deadline to turn over documents and as it stands, he’s not turned over anything.
Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the White House was “seeking to accommodate Democrats’ unwieldy demands,” which is totally bullshit, but whatever.
Jesus wept.
And Mueller punted. He didn’t charge Trump with obstruction of justice but he did note several instances that included witness tampering and attempts to disrupt the investigation.
McGahn knows a lot about this, which is why Nadler and crew want him and his documents to step in front of the firing squad.
Nadler notes that McGahn “is a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report.”
McGahn’s testimony to Congress would help “shed further light on the president’s attacks on the rule of law and his attempts to cover up those actions by lying to the American people and requesting others do the same,” Nadler said, NBC News reports.
Not to mention that Mueller’s report cites two times in which McGahn and Trump had phone calls in which the president “directed” his then counsel to contact Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller “removed” — which, along with many other instances, and according to some 450 lawyers, would amount to obstruction of justice.