Tag: House Judiciary Committee

Nadler subpoenas Lewandowski, former White House official for testimony

The Hill logoHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) subpoenaed former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House official Rick Dearborn on Thursday, marking Democrats’ latest efforts to receive testimony from key figures in the Mueller report.

Nadler said he is seeking the public testimony on Sept. 17 from two individuals who were “prominently” involved in President Trump’s attempts to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal from overseeing the Russia probe.

“Corey Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn were prominently featured in the Special Counsel’s description of President Trump’s efforts to obstruct justice by directing then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire the Special Counsel, and then by ordering him to lie about it,” Nadler said in a statement.

View the complete August 15 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Judiciary Democrats say they are effectively in impeachment inquiry already

Court filing for grand jury info in Mueller report intensifies probe to determine whether to impeach Trump, they say

House Judiciary Democrats told reporters Friday that they don’t need to launch a formal impeachment inquiry — they’re essentially conducting one already with their investigation into President Donald Trump.

“In effect,” Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said when asked if the panel’s ongoing probe is effectively the same as an impeachment inquiry.

The only difference, the New York Democrat said, is with a formal impeachment inquiry the panel would only be considering impeachment.

View the complete July 26 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

Mueller testimony likely to be delayed for one week

The Hill logoFormer special counsel Robert Mueller’s public testimony before Congress is likely to be postponed until July 24, multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Hill. 

The House Judiciary Committee is negotiating for lawmakers to have more time to question Mueller about his investigation into Russian interference and potential obstruction of justice by President Trump, the sources said. They cautioned that the situation is fluid and is pending a final agreement by the Democrats on his appearance.

Mueller was initially scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday. The initial agreement was for Mueller to testify at two consecutive hearings before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, with his testimony limited to about two hours before each committee. Under the agreement, 22 lawmakers would be able to ask questions.  

View the complete July 12 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Judiciary issues blitz of subpoenas for Kushner, Sessions, Trump associates

The Hill logoThe House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony from a dozen current and former Trump administration officials and associates related to the panel’s investigation into alleged obstruction of justice by President Trump. 

The committee also voted to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony related to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, amid massive outrage by Democrats over conditions in detention facilities at the southern border.

The committee approved the resolution authorizing the slew of subpoenas in a 21-12 vote after a contentious markup Thursday, during which Republicans and Democrats sparred over the setup of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s impending testimony and the immigration crisis.

View the complete July 11 article by Morgan Chalfant and Olivia Beaver on The Hill website here.

Justice Dept. Tells Mueller Deputies Not to Testify, Scrambling an Agreement

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — The Justice Department is seeking to discourage Robert S. Mueller III’s deputies from testifying before Congress, potentially jeopardizing an agreement for two of the former prosecutors to answer lawmakers’ questions in private next week, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.

The department told the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees last week that it was opposed to the testimony and had communicated its view to the two former members of Mr. Mueller’s team, Aaron Zebley and James L. Quarles III, according to a senior congressional official familiar with the discussions. A Justice Department official confirmed that account and said that the department had instructed both men not to appear.

It is unclear what effect the Justice Department’s intervention will have on the men’s eventual appearances, but it raises the prospect that a deal lawmakers thought they had struck last month for testimony from Mr. Mueller, the former special counsel, and the two prosecutors could still unravel.

View the complete July 9 article by Nicholas Fandos and Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

Trump plans rally in Greenville, NC, on day Mueller is set to testify

President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Greenville, NC, on July 17, according to his campaign website.

The rally at Williams Arena is the same day former special counsel Robert Mueller is set to testify before Congress on his investigation into the Trump campaign, The Hill reported. Mueller will “publicly testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees,” according to the Associated Press.

The Keep America Great rally is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Only two tickets per person are available for those registering to attend the Greenville rally, according to the website.

View the complete July 2 article by Noah Feit on The Charlotte Observer here.

Weeks of Talks Led a Reluctant Mueller to Testify

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — The agreement for Robert S. Mueller III to testify on Capitol Hill materialized after weeks of phone calls and meetings between House Democratic staff and associates of Mr. Mueller, who made clear his reluctance to enter the political war surrounding his investigation.

His intermediaries repeatedly delivered a message that Mr. Mueller, then the special counsel, conveyed last month in a rare public appearance: A prosecutor speaks through his indictments and the written word rather than the public spectacle of a congressional hearing. Mr. Mueller was so averse to being pulled into the political arena that he never spoke directly with lawmakers or their aides, according to a senior congressional official involved in the talks and others briefed on them.

His reticence mattered little in the end. Democrats were insistent that he had a responsibility to testify, though they agreed to combine questioning from two panels on one day. The protracted negotiations came to an abrupt stop late on Tuesday night when representatives for Mr. Mueller agreed that he would show up if the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees issued subpoenas for an appearance on July 17.

View the complete June 26 article by Nicholas Fandos and Eileen Sullivan on The Washington Post website here.

Hope Hicks confirms Trump was serious about accepting foreign election interference in 2020

“I don’t think that was a joke based on what I saw.”

When former White House communications director Hope Hicks spoke to the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, she didn’t answer many questions. In fact, USA Today counted 155 questions that she refused to answer. But she did address a few questions about President Donald Trump, including whether he would accept dirt on his election opponents from foreign adversaries in 2020, as he claimed in a recent interview.

Yes, Hicks confirmed, Trump was serious about that.

Committee lawyer Norman Eisen first asked Hicks about Trump’s public statement during the 2016 campaign asking Russia to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to deleted messages on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Hicks said that based on her conversations with Trump immediately afterward, she believed the remark had been “a little bit tongue-in-cheek” and not “intended as an instructive or a directive to a foreign government.”

View the complete June 21 article by Zack Ford on the ThinkProgress website here.

Nadler: Hope Hicks testimony is huge gift in legal battle with Trump

House Democrats are planning to file a lawsuit within days to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify on Capitol Hill — and they say Hope Hicks’ reluctant testimony Wednesday will help deliver them a crucial win in court.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said Hicks’ blanket refusal to tell lawmakers about her tenure in the West Wing is the real-life illustration Democrats needed to show a judge just how extreme the White House’s blockade on witness testimony has become.

“It very much played into our hands,” Nadler said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office Thursday. “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.”

View the complete June 21 article by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney on the Politico website here.

Hope Hicks refused to answer 155 questions during House testimony

Hope Hicks refused to answer 155 questions from House Democrats on Wednesday about her tenure as communications director in the Trump White House, according to a transcript of her closed-door testimony released Thursday.

The longtime confidante of President Donald Trump spent nearly eight hours clinging closely to White House attorneys’ demands that she refuse to answer every question about her time in the White House, as Democrats ticked through a lengthy, detailed and at times monotonous recitation of questions they knew the answer to: “Objection.”

The House Judiciary Committee’s interview yielded virtually no new information about Hicks’ role in the Trump campaign, and none at all about her testimony to former special counsel Robert Mueller centering on Trump’s repeated attempts to constrain or thwart Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

View the complete June 20 article by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney on the Politico website here.