Newly Empowered Chairman Jerry Nadler Moves on Second Front for Impeachment Assault – HJC Moves To Enforce McGahn Subpoena… Posted on October 31, 2019, by sundance
I’m going to attempt to remove the legal linguistics and explain what appears to be a highly predictable process most are ignoring.
BASELINE – After the 2018 mid-terms, and in preparation for the “impeachment” strategy, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Lawfare group members to become House committee staff…. Chairman Schiff hired former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman (link), and Chairman Nadler hired Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke (link). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then hired Douglas Letter as House General Counsel – all are within the Lawfare network.
♦On October 25th DC Judge Beryl Howell granted the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) request for legal authority to receive 6e grand jury material underlying the Mueller report.
Additionally, within the Howell decision she officially recognized the HJC effort was predicated on a constitutional impeachment process.
In essence Howell’s opinion granted the HJC with “judicial enforcement authority.”
♦The DOJ moved to appeal the decision and requested a “stay” pending appeal. Judge Howell rejected the “stay” motion.
The DOJ appealed to the DC Court of Appeals. A panel of three judges issued an “administrative stay”, blocking enforcement of the Howell ruling while the appeal was reviewed.
The temporary administrative stay was granted to freeze the status quo while the court considers whether to grant a longer stay that would remain in effect until the DOJ appeal is argued or decided (deadline tomorrow). The outcome is pending. Judge Merrick Garland is the Chief Judge of the DC Appeals court.
After the full House voted to authorize the ongoing “impeachment inquiry” today, Nadler’s team immediately opened a second legal front.
♦Using the baseline predicate of Howell’s recognition of HJC impeachment authority; and now using the full House vote as further affirmation therein; the HJC is now moving to another Judge, Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee to the federal district court in D.C., requesting judicial enforcement authority to compel testimony from former White House legal counsel Don McGahn:
Zitat WASHINGTON DC – Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee urged a federal judge on Thursday to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress about President Trump’s possible obstruction of justice, arguing that his refusal to comply is harming House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
Democrats’ counsel said that even though McGahn’s role in the obstruction investigation carried out by former special counsel Robert Mueller was described at length in Mueller’s report, lawmakers still need to independently evaluate his testimony. (more)
The HJC objective is simple: gain judicial enforcement authority for their subpoenas so their targets cannot legally refuse to give testimony.
The premise for both fronts [(1) document subpoena 6e material, and (2) testimony from McGahn] is predicated on penetrating a constitutional firewall that exists within the separation of powers.
Under existing SCOTUS precedent, the White House can be compelled to deliver Executive Branch documents and testimony so long as an official legislative branch impeachment process is underway.
Judge Beryl Howell was the first person in the judicial branch to recognize and accept the HJC position that such an official impeachment process was ongoing. Judge Brown Jackson will likely be the second. The House vote today is fuel for that twisted-legal approach.