Tag: House Judiciary Committee

Hicks repeatedly blocked by White House from answering Judiciary questions

The Hill logoThe House Judiciary Committee has released a transcript of a closed-door interview with former Trump aide Hope Hicks, showing White House lawyers repeatedly blocking her from answering questions about her work in the administration.

Hicks interviewed privately with the panel for nearly eight hours on Wednesday as part of its sweeping investigation into President Trumpand his associates. She was compelled to testify under subpoena.

The transcript, which stretches 273 pages long, shows Trump administration lawyers repeatedly blocking Hicks from answering questions about her time in the White House by invoking the argument she is immune from compelled congressional testimony on the subject — a tactic that infuriated Democratic lawmakerson Wednesday.

View the complete June 20 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Hope Hicks agrees to testify to House Judiciary Committee

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on June 19, the committee announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: Hicks will be the first former Trump official to appear before a Democratic committee investigating whether the president attempted to obstruct justice. However, Hicks may decline to answer certain questions if the president asserts executive privilege over events relating to her time in the White House.

  • Last week, the president instructed Hicks not to turn over documents related to her time in the administration, in defiance of a subpoena from the committee.

Details: The “transcribed interview” will “include questions related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and efforts by President Trump, his associates, and other Administration officials to obstruct justice and investigations into Presidential misconduct,” per the statement.

View the complete June 12 article by Alayna Treene on the Axios website here.

John Dean’s compelling case for parallels between Trump and Watergate

The star witness of Watergate took a turn as the star witness for House Democrats’ inquiries into President Trump on Monday. And in doing so, he laid out a compelling series of parallels between the two situations.

Former White House counsel John Dean acknowledged at the start of Monday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing that he wasn’t there as a “fact witness.” Instead, he noted in his opening statement several ways in which he sees the report of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III echoing Watergate.

Dean didn’t run through each of those verbally during his testimony, but his written statement lays his case out in detail.

View the complete June 10 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Justice gives Congress new details on ‘spying’ probe

The Justice Department on Monday offered more details to Congress on the investigation that Attorney General William Barr ordered into the intelligence collection on the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 election.

In a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said that the inquiry is being primarily conducted by U.S. attorney John Durham out of Justice Department offices in Washington, D.C.

Boyd wrote that Durham, the U.S. attorney from Connecticut, is receiving assistance from a “number of U.S. Attorney’s Office personnel and other Department employees.”

View the complete June 10 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Key House panel faces pivotal week on Trump

The House Judiciary Committee, which would consider articles of impeachment against President Trump if that process moves forward, is set for a pivotal week.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the panel’s chairman, has jostled for weeks with the administration to secure more documents and witness testimony — including that of special counsel Robert Mueller — to guide probes into Russian election interference and allegations that Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation.

But the efforts have come up largely empty in the face of the administration’s near-blanket refusal to honor those requests, leading to confrontations about holding administration officials for contempt and raising the pressure on Democratic leaders to consider impeachment.

View the complete June 3 article by Mike Lillis and Scott Wong on The Hill website here.

House Public Safety and Judiciary Divisions to hold public hearing on compromise budget package

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today at 4:00 pm, the House Public Safety & Criminal Justice Reform and Judiciary & Civil Law Divisions will hold a joint public hearing to provide an informational overview of the Special Session Omnibus Public Safety and Judiciary Bill. Non-partisan staff will review the contents of the bill’s articles and corresponding spreadsheets.

The hearing will take place in Room 120 of the State Capitol.

The bill and spreadsheet will be made available on the committee webpage here. A video livestream of the hearing is available here. Members of the public wishing to testify can contact Committee Administrator Jamael Lundy at Jamael.Lundy@house.mn.

Nadler To White House: ‘No President Is Above The Law’

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler slammed the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying the White House’s blanket refusal to comply with legitimate congressional requests from 81 Trump officials or allies is akin to “claiming that the president is a king.”

“No president, no person in the United States is above the law,” Nadler told CNN reporter Manu Raju. “This is preposterous.”

In a letter to Nadler on Wednesday, White House counsel Pat Cipollone declared that the White House will ignore Nadler’s subpoena because it was issued “not to further a legitimate legislative purpose, but rather to conduct a pseudo law enforcement investigation on matters that were already the subject of the Special Counsel’s long-running investigation.”

View the complete May 15 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

Nadler says Mueller will not testify next week

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) said Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller will not be testifying before his panel next week.

Nadler told reporters that the committee is still negotiating over his testimony with the Justice Department and Mueller but expects the special counsel to appear.

“It won’t be next week. We’re negotiating now,” Nadler said. “We’re talking with him and the Justice Department.”

View the complete May 10 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

House panel votes to hold Barr in contempt

The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating a growing feud between Democrats and the Trump administration over special counsel Robert Mueller‘s report.

In a 24-16 vote, Democrats made a formal recommendation that the House hold Barr in contempt for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena for Mueller’s full unredacted report and underlying documents.

House leaders have expressed support for the contempt resolution, though it’s unclear when it will advance to the House floor. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference after the vote that it would happen “rapidly” and “soon,” though he said he is not sure of a specific time.

View the complete May 8 article by Morgan Chalfant and Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

After McGahn misses first subpoena deadline, Nadler warns of contempt if he misses second

Former White House counsel declines to turn over documents, but committee expects him to testify

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Tuesday that his panel will hold former White House counsel Donald McGahn in contempt of Congress if he does not comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee on May 21.

The threat, which the New York Democrat issued in a letter sent to McGahn’s lawyer William A. Burck, comes as McGahn missed the first of two deadlines the committee gave him in the subpoena. McGahn had to turn over by Tuesday documents related to instances chronicled in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report in which President Donald Trump may have obstructed justice.

McGahn, who did not turn over the documents because the White House asserts it has legal custody them, faces a second deadline two weeks from now, when the Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed him to testify about the alleged obstruction of justice.

View the complete May 7 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.