House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) thinks Hope Hicks’ scarce testimony may be a blessing in disguise.
During an interview with Politico on Thursday, Nadler suggested that Hicks’ refusal to answer questions about her time in the White House will help lawmakers in their lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. Hicks’ refusal illustrates the lengths the White House has gone to keep witnesses quiet.
“It very much played into our hands,” Nadler told Politico. “It’s one thing to tell a judge blanket immunity is not a right thing. It’s another thing when a judge can see what that means in actuality, and how absurd it is.”
Nadler said lawmakers are currently working on drafting the lawsuit against McGahn and he hopes a win on that front will force the White House to stop resisting their oversight efforts.
Rewrite lede: “Nadler going to the courts in hopes a judge will let him begin impeachment proceedings over the objections of Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump.”
That sounds good. But, geez, I hope Nadler knows what he’s doing. The jury’s still out on that, I guess. Giving Hicks the opportunity to play this game behind close doors still seems to have been a bad call.
Knowing how tight lipped Hicks was going to be, why wasn’t the lawsuit drafted in advance and filed that afternoon?
I understand slow walking, but this is molasses running up hill.
Great. Mueller, plz?
Perhaps it was, and Nadler’s statement is intended to disguise the fact, in case Trump’s lawyers might try to use it against them? Filing suit the second Hicks leaves the stand might be… suspicious.
Just speculating.