Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney moved Friday night to join a pending lawsuit asking a judge if he must comply with a House subpoena, the hearing for which he’s already skipped.
The Friday night filing, first reported by Politico, may re-up the relevance of the suit filed last month by former deputy to ex-NSA John Bolton Charles Kupperman, who similarly sought advice as to whether or not his testimony was protected by immunity, as the White House claims.
Kupperman’s suit is still pending despite the fact that the House committees tossed his subpoena rather than fight him in court.
“The question whether the President’s authority must give way in the face of a congressional subpoena—the determination Mr. Kupperman has asked this Court to make—is central to the question whether the House may take adverse action against Mr. Mulvaney, as threatened. For that reason, Mr.Mulvaney seeks to intervene here,” wrote Mulvaney’s lawyers.
So far, Democrats have opted to brush off witnesses resistant to testifying, choosing to focus on officials willing to speak out.
Hey Nick. You can run, but you can’t hide. MOFO!
Don Corleone may or may not have sent us a general instruction to whack Freddy “Two Sticks” Marzotti, but since the Don told me not to say anything I can’t really speak to the police until I get a judge to tell me if I need to testify.
Not wanting to offend Trump or the their conservative overlords bearing grifts, nor wanting to face the consequences of defying a Congressional subpoena, this appears to be the middle ground they’ve stumbled upon. December 11 is not far off, I hope Dems call them out on it, assuming of course, Judge Leon calls it on the up and up.
If Leon rules the subpoenas take precedence and they still refuse to cooperate, that should mean certain jail time.
I thought the federal courts do not issue advisories? What am I misunderstanding here?
Not even Judge Leon is going to rule that it’s okay to ignore a lawful congressional subpoena.
And they might get a ruling sooner than December 10th.