In the wake of the White House’s breezy dismissal of House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy’s (R-SC) requests for information on why they let Staff Secretary Rob Porter keep working in spite of knowing about his alleged domestic abuse, House Democrats are demanding that he issue subpoenas and get to the bottom of the issue.
The White House sent a letter to Gowdy and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the committee’s ranking Democrat, refusing to answer Gowdy’s requests for more information. That polite brush-off was first reported by TPM Thursday night. The big question now is whether Gowdy decides to force the issue and hold the White House accountable, or decide to give President Trump and his team a pass as he’d done on a number of past issues.
Cummings points out that Gowdy has been less than tenacious in his earlier oversight of the White House. Even when he’s worked with Cummings to request information on issues including staffers’ use of private email (the same thing Gowdy hammered Hillary Clinton for) and administration officials’ use of private jets, he did nothing when the White House refused to comply.
“Unfortunately, by repeatedly backing down, the committee has now enabled and emboldened the White House to openly defy congressional oversight. In my opinion, the Trump White House — more than any other in recent memory — needs more congressional oversight, not less,” Cummings writes Gowdy in the open letter. “The response last night from the White House is an affront to our responsibilities under the Constitution, and it degrades the integrity of our Committee. It is now clear that the White House will not respond to this Committee unless it is compelled to do so. For these reasons, I ask that you issue a subpoena to obtain the documents requested on February 14 and 15.”
Cummings also points out that while Gowdy initially demanded information from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn on why Porter was allowed to keep working and who in the White House knew what and when after the FBI said White House officials had misled the public by claiming they’d just found out about his alleged misconduct, the chairman has yet to schedule interviews with either man to discuss the issue.
The ball’s in Gowdy’s court on whether he’ll pursue this issue as doggedly as he went after Clinton, or once again drop it. Gowdy’s staff didn’t respond to a request for response to the initial letter from the White House, or follow-ups about Cummings’ requests.
