Trump investigations: A list of ongoing battles with Congress by By Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Chene
The White House has repeatedly rebuffed House Democrats’ oversight demands, from requests for President Donald Trump’s taxes to testimony from the former White House counsel. Democrats have gone so far as to issue subpoenas in some cases, but Trump has vowed to fight each one.
Here are the major battles being waged and where they stand:
Democratic demand: The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and all underlying evidence.
White House pushback: The Justice Department has refused, citing laws blocking the disclosure of grand jury information. Democrats issued a subpoena for the report on April 19 and the Justice Department defied a May 1 deadline, citing efforts to work with Congress to provide a largely unredacted report to a select group of senior lawmakers. The committee voted on May 8 to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for not providing the unredacted report.
Accessing the unredacted report is a crucial part of Democrats’ oversight agenda – not just because it could contain damaging details about Trump but because Democrats have spent months attempting to retrace Mueller’s steps on their own.
Mueller Testimoney
Democratic demand: The House Judiciary Committee is seeking testimony from Mueller.
White House pushback: Democrats are privately working on the logistics with the Justice Department but so far haven’t reached a deal. Democrats are eyeing May 15 but have not gotten confirmation from Mueller that he will attend, and Trump’s claims of executive privilege could delay any testimony. In May, Trump reversed himself and stated that Mueller “should not testify.”
Democrats see Mueller’s testimony as the linchpin of their investigative efforts, the moment when he will help crystallize for the country the import of the evidence he gathered on Russia’s effort to support Trump’s election and Trump’s effort to obstruct his investigation. But little is known about whether Mueller wants to testify, whether he’s prepared to say anything outside of the findings from his report or if he’ll take any issue with Attorney General William Barr’s handling of his work.
Don McGahn’s Role
Democratic demand: The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for documents and testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn.
White House pushback: McGahn defied a committee request to provide documents by a May 7 deadline, and has yet to say whether he’ll testify to the committee on May 21. McGahn delivered some of the most damning testimony Mueller received implicating Trump in potential obstruction of justice. His testimony, combined with notes from his deputy Annie Donaldson, portrayed a White House in chaos and a president fuming at the special counsel’s investigation and repeatedly attempting to disrupt the probe — including asking McGahn to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller.
The White House on May 7 intervened in the dispute, urging the Judiciary Committee to stop requesting files directly from McGahn and to approach the White House instead, since the administration may want to invoke executive privilege. Democrats say the privilege has already been waived, since Trump allowed McGahn to speak to Mueller and share documents.
Chats with Putin
Democratic demand: The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees asked the White House and State Department to turn over “all documents and communications, regardless of form and classification, that refer or relate to any communications between President Trump and President Putin, including in-person meetings and telephone calls.”
White House pushback: The White House said it would not provide the documents, citing longstanding precedents that protect the privacy of presidents’ conversations with world leaders. It remains unclear whether House Democrats will issue a subpoena for the documents.
Democrats have long been suspicious of Trump’s one-on-one meetings with the Russian leader, especially in Helsinki last year when the president publicly bucked his intelligence agencies and appeared to side with Putin’s denials of election interference.
Accounting firm’s Trump docs
Democratic demand: The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to accounting firm Mazars USA seeking eight years of Trump’s financial documents.
White House pushback: Trump filed a lawsuit — in his personal capacity — against the committee in an attempt to invalidate the subpoena. The suit is currently making its way through federal court.
The committee said it needed the documents in order to corroborate a number of claims made by Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who alleged that Trump artificially inflated and deflated the value of his assets as he sought loans and a reduction in his overall tax burden.
Banks’ Trump docs
Democratic demand: The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One for Trump’s financial records.
White House pushback: Trump filed another lawsuit to block the subpoenas, with his lawyers contending that the subpoenas were only issued to “harass” the president and damage his re-election prospects.
The committees say they need the documents as part of their joint investigations into potential foreign influence on the U.S. political process and abuse of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes.
Trump’s taxes
Democratic demand: The House Ways and Means Committee has requested six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns.
White House pushback: The Treasury Department has twice rejected the committee’s demand, setting the stage for a potential subpoena or for Democrats to go directly to court. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) that the committee’s request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” Democrats say the purpose of the request is to ensure that the Internal Revenue Service is enforcing all relevant tax laws.
White House security clearances
Democratic demand: The House Oversight Committee is conducting a wide-ranging investigation centering on alleged abuses with the White House security clearance system. The panel has requested documents and witness testimony from the White House.
White House pushback: The White House has rejected virtually all of the committee’s demands. Democrats say the White House hasn’t turned over a single document related to the security clearance process, and it instructed Carl Kline, the former personnel security director, to defy the committee’s subpoena for his testimony. Kline eventually agreed to appear before the panel for a transcribed interview, during which he confirmed allegations from a whistleblower that he overruled some clearance applications that were initially denied. But he also said nobody at the White House directed him to do so.
Reports emerged earlier this year that the president himself intervened to ensure that his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was granted a full security clearance, despite recommendations to the contrary from career national security officials.
Broad corruption and obstruction inquiry
Democratic demand: The House Judiciary Committee in early March sent letters to 81 Trump-connected individuals and entities seeking records and testimony from the White House, Trump’s businesses, charity and family, as part of a broad inquiry into potential obstruction of justice and corruption.
White House pushback: The response from the recipients has been mixed. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler later said that his committee received “a large number” of responses from the individuals and entities as well as “tens of thousands” of documents.
It remains unclear if all recipients have responded to the request or provided documents, though longtime Trump confidant Thomas Barrack and former top White House adviser Stephen Bannon have confirmed they turned over documents. Others have refused to comply, with some asking for a so-called “friendly subpoena” to secure their compliance and others stating that they do not possess the documents requested.
Source:Politico.com