The Department of Justice this week argued that a federal appeals court should “dismiss or deny” the House Judiciary Committee’s lawsuit over former White House counsel Don McGahn’s testimony.
The department’s attorneys ask the court to “decline the Committee’s request that it enter the fray and instead should dismiss this fraught suit between the political branches for lack of jurisdiction.” The DOJ lawyers added that “although the articles of impeachment do not moot this case, they eliminate the need for further expedition beyond holding oral argument,” which is scheduled for January 3.
“The Committee continues to suffer harm with each additional day that it is denied access to McGahn’s testimony. The Committee has already waited eight months. The Committee should not be required to wait any longer,” lawyers for the House wrote in a filing on Monday.
David Lurie, lawyer and writer for The Daily Beast, said that the department and President Donald Trump’s supporters “contend that the Senate doesn’t need to hear from the president’s closest advisers before voting on his removal, because the House purportedly failed to do all it could to obtain court rulings rebuking Trump for his systematic stonewalling of congressional subpoenas.”
He added, “The GOP’s argument that Congress should have devoted more effort to litigation is all the weaker because the Department of Justice is contending that the federal courts should not enforce Congress’s impeachment subpoenas regardless of their legal validity. Therefore, if Attorney General William Barr gets his way, Congress’ sole recourse to obtain the testimony of the missing Trump Administration witnesses will be to arrest them itself, and jail them until they talk.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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