House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has formally requested documents from the ex-Fox News reporter whose story about the hush payments made to Stormy Daniels was allegedly spiked during the 2016 election because Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch wanted Trump to win the election.
According to the letter obtained by MSNBC’s Ari Melber — which he read on the air during his show Thursday evening — Cummings wants documents related to “women alleging extra marital affairs with President Trump, payments by the President or anyone on behalf of him to silence those people.”
“And in a sign that this relates to probing potential crimes, we know that this request from Chairman Cummings requests any documents regarding potential campaign finance violations. Now, for a House chair, these kind of letters can ultimately pave the way for a later subpoena if there’s no compliance,” Melber said.
During an interview with Melber earlier this week, lawyer for the former Fox News reporter, Diana Falzone, said that Congress would have to subpoena Falzone in order to compel her to speak or share documents because she is under a non-disclosure agreement with Fox News.
MSNBC: Cummings formally request docs from Fox News reporter whose Stormy Daniels hush money payments story got killed during the 2016 election pic.twitter.com/3l3GqM2Q7s
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 15, 2019
That’s what I thought would be the case as soon as I saw the headline.
Cummings should have jumped directly to subpoenaing the documents - and should issue the subpoena now, since her Falzone’s lawyer has already said on national television that she can’t respond without one.
This begs the question: are NDA’a common in the news business, or is this just a tRumpf and fox situation?