Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, asserted on Sunday that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton ought to testify in the committee’s upcoming impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
“If the courts rule in the future that senior officials like John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney could testify, do you believe they should?” ABC News host Martha Raddatz asked McClintock during an interview on “This Week.”
“Absolutely,” the Republican lawmaker replied. “And in fact, yeah, it would be to the President’s advantage to have them testify now.”
“But of course he has to weigh that against the enormous catastrophic damage that would do to the doctrine of executive privilege that assures that when policy is being developed within the administration, those discussions are unfettered, are candid, are thinking outside of the box,” he added. “That’s why the doctrine of executive privilege exists.”
McClintock also suggested it was in Trump’s interest to have his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, testify in front of the committee.
“Again, I think more information is better than less in every aspect of an inquiry and the adversarial process is very important to test what’s true and what’s not,” he said.
Bolton and Mulvaney have declined to comply with the House impeachment investigation thus far. Bolton has filed a lawsuit to allow the court to decide whether he should follow the White House’s order to ignore investigators’ request to testify, and the hearing for the case is scheduled for December 10.
Mulvaney attempted to latch onto Bolton’s lawsuit, then gave up on the effort several days later.
U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled last week that former White House counsel Don McGahn must obey the House’s subpoena despite the White House’s orders, but Bolton’s lawyer argued that the decision did not apply to his client’s case.
The Judiciary committee will hold its first hearing on December 4.
Watch McClintock below:
GOPer on the House Judiciary Committee says John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney should "absolutely" testify in the committee's impeachment hearings. pic.twitter.com/NDNVlS3NUa
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 1, 2019
"…that assures that when policy is being developed within the administration, those discussions are unfettered, are candid, are thinking outside of the box,” he added. “That’s why the doctrine of executive privilege exists.”
And if it’s in pursuit of illegal and un-American activities, then what?
“…Outside the Box”. Box? That’s a funny thing to call the Constitution.
Which they can still invoke in answering particular questions. The version of executive privilege that asserts all officials past and present don’t have to respond to Congressional subpeonas is new, and does “enormous catastrophic damage” to separation of powers and to the Constitution.
Russia is outside of NATO.
Is that clear enough for you, Congressman?
Question is: Is this a strong “should” or a weak “should?”
Because without either willing testimony or a subpoena to compel, these are just words.
I am sort of a fan of Laurence Tribe at this point. So far, the majority of Trump’s activities are still under wraps. Tribe believes that the GOP will have two choices when that is made known. (convict or run for Office as an accessory to Trump)
Saying anything at this point is only ping pong, not tennis…and Politics 101 teaches the Art Of Saying Nothing.