Congress has oversight authority and House chairs are exercising it to seek documents and information from the Trump administration, Sen. Mazie Hirono insisted Wednesday, while rejecting arguments from the White House about handing over documents sought by the House Judiciary Committee and its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY.
"For the executive branch to say, well, we have no authority, that's not exactly a legal argument," the Hawaii Democrat told CNN's "New Day." "They are going to need to present a legal argument, not a political argument as to why they don't want to comply with these requests."
Part of the argument has been that special counsel Robert Mueller already would have the documents being sought, but Hirono said he's specifically charged to investigate whether Russia interfered with the 2016 election and if there was collusion with President Donald Trump's campaign.
"There are so many other areas of inquiry, such as what happened with the Trump Tower and Russia," said Hirono. "There are so many areas of inquiry, especially after Michael Cohen's testimony. So it is our responsibility to investigate and to oversee what the administration is doing."
"Frankly, the administration has to come up with a legal argument, saying executive privilege or something," said Hirono. "They can't say this is a fishing expedition. That is not a legal argument, that is a political argument."
Hirono, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will participate in a hearing Wednesday about two children who died while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection, and she said that the agency will be asked what steps are being taken to make sure people in U.S. custody do not die, including adults.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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