White House plans to fight House subpoena of former counsel Donald McGahn for testimony on Mueller report

By artappraiser on Tue, 04/23/2019 - 7:24pm |

Time to find out how much of a patriot McGahn’s actually wants to be. The WH initially tried to block Sally Yates from testifying too. If McGahn wants to do it, they can’t stop him. https://t.co/xsYNY2lER2
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) April 23, 2019

URL:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-plans-to-fight-house-subpoena-of-former-counsel-donald-mcgahn-for-testimony-on-mueller-report/2019/04/23/2d48732a-65f1-11e9-83df-04f4d124151f_story.html?utm_term=.3e879e3a006a

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Meanwhile, delay technique on the taxes:

Neal response: “This afternoon, Secretary Mnuchin notified me that once again, the IRS will miss the deadline for my 6103 request. I plan to consult with counsel about my next steps.” https://t.co/nOlYJtMUnM
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 23, 2019

by artappraiser on Tue, 04/23/2019 - 7:33pm

A rude surprise could be awaiting Trump (On accountant's records, likely to be hoist on his own petard via the case law he created)

By Harry Litman @ WashingtonPost.com, April 23

Littman, a Washington Post contributing columnist, is a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. He teaches constitutional law and national security law at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and the University of California at San Diego Department of Political Science.

Not known for his sense of irony, President Trump probably fails to appreciate that his arguments for beating back Congress’s subpoena of his accountant’s records are the polar opposite of arguments he has employed to justify his own conduct.

In fact, Trump’s personal complaint against House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) is the mirror image of the arguments he advanced to defend his travel ban, which the Supreme Court upheld last year in Trump v. Hawaii [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 04/23/2019 - 10:19pm

I missed this; one has to admit this is quite creative lawyering, given the above circumstances. In the end though, it's still a delay tactic. Why am I visualizing highly confidential negotiations about possible shredding?

Trump sues in bid to block congressional subpoena of financial records

By David A. Farenthold, Rachel Bade & John Wagner @ Washington Post.com, April 22 at 5:43 PM

President Trump sued his own accounting firm and the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee at the same time Monday — trying an unusual tactic to stop the firm from giving the committee details about Trump’s past financial dealings.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, seeks a court order to quash a subpoena issued last week by the committee to Mazars USA. Trump’s lawyers also are asking a federal judge to temporarily block the subpoena until the court has had a chance to review their request.

The move amounts to Trump — the leader of the executive branch of government — asking the judicial branch to stop the legislative branch from investigating his past.

Former House counsels from both sides of the aisle called the challenge a long shot and an apparent delay tactic [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 3:03am

Except they likely already have his records from his accountant.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 3:45am

Trumps' legals are trying the same lawsuit trick with Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank:

https://t.co/DCiRN9u6Dk via ⁦@WRashbaum⁩ and me
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 30, 2019

As Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters note in their statement, it is a delay tactic: “This lawsuit is not designed to succeed; it is only designed to put off meaningful accountability as long as possible.”

by artappraiser on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:37pm

@CNN:

In a new statement, Chairman Nadler says, “The moment for the White House to assert some privilege to prevent this testimony from being heard has long since passed.” https://t.co/GmIUuBQ2Ry
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 23, 2019

Laurence Tribe agrees with Nadler 100%:

Trump’s lawyers can fight — but they have no legal ammo to fight with. Executive privilege was clearly waived when The Donald told Don McGahn to spill all to Mueller. So they’d be shooting with blanks. No there there. Nada. Zip. https://t.co/AJh3UD7XHq
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) April 23, 2019

by artappraiser on Tue, 04/23/2019 - 10:56pm

House panel moves to hold former White House official in contempt after he obeys Trump administration’s instruction not to testify

By Tom Hamburger @ WashingtonPost.com, April 23 at 3:56 PM

The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House personnel security director in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would consult with the House counsel and members of the panel about scheduling a vote on contempt for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline. At the instruction of the White House, Kline failed to show up for scheduled testimony on security clearances.

The move marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House, which is increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill

“The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Cummings said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight.” [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 2:18am

The current headline story @ Politico summarizes this whole thread:

Trump showdown with House Democrats ignites into all-out war

The White House and congressional investigators are hammering each other with legal action and charges of bad faith.

Updated 04/23/2019 09:11 PM EDT

by artappraiser on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 2:33am

Hillary vs. Jared dueling war room narratives on the Mueller Report at the Time 100 Summit:

Clinton says Trump escaped indictment only because of DOJ policy

By Katie Galioto @ Politico.com, Updated 04/23/2019 03:55 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that President Donald Trump escaped obstruction of justice charges only because of a Justice Department rule barring the indictment of a sitting president.

"I think there’s enough there that any other person who had engaged in those acts would certainly have been indicted," Clinton said at a TIME magazine event in New York. "But because of the rule in the Justice Department that you can’t indict a sitting president, the whole matter of obstruction was very directly sent to the Congress." [....]

Clinton on Tuesday called for the release of an unredacted version of Mueller's report to allow lawmakers the information necessary to move forward with a thorough investigation.

Pelosi's strategy earned the approval of Clinton, who said impeachment — a drastic move that Democratic leaders worry could cost their party the House in 2020 — should not be fueled by "partisan political purposes."

"I think her argument was we want to show the American people we take our constitutional responsibilities seriously," Clinton said.

Like Pelosi, she advocated for a "careful" approach, describing impeachment as something that should be undertaken "in a really serious, diligent way, based on evidence." [....]

Kushner: Mueller probe was 'more harmful' to U.S. than Russian election interference

By Katie Galiloto @ Politico.com, Updated 04/23/2019 01:28 PM EDT

Senior Trump administration adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that the 22-month Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller was “more harmful” to the United States than the Russian election interference Mueller was charged with investigating.

During a rare interview covering a wide range of hot-button issues at the TIME 100 Summit, Kushner claimed Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to aid President Donald Trump amounted to "a couple Facebook ads."

“You look at what Russia did, buying some Facebook ads and trying to sow dissent. It's a terrible thing,” Kushner said in his first public remarks since Mueller's report was released last week. “But I think the investigations and all of the speculation that's happened for the last two years has a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple Facebook ads." [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 2:45am

Don't bring a bonesaw to a knife fight, Jared - you're certainly not the sharpest blade despite daddy's money. I'm sure those backchannels to Russia and Saudi Arabia have really helped our democratic principles, you douche.

Mujtaba al-Sweikat, a student slated to attend Western Michigan University, is beheaded in Saudi Arabia. He had been arrested when he was 17 by Saudis in 2012 after taking part in democracy rallies, and tortured while in custody. https://t.co/812inSYXde
— Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) April 23, 2019

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 3:43am

Dems launch probe into 'unprecedented' Trump firings at Homeland Security

@ TheHill.com- 04/25/19 02:41 PM EDT

by artappraiser on Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:08pm

White House plans to fight House subpoena of former counsel Donald McGahn for testimony on Mueller report

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