Judge orders ex-White House counsel Don McGahn to obey subpoena
A US district judge has ordered Donald Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with a subpoena issued by House Democrats – originally in response to the Mueller report – that could see him testify to the impeachment inquiry.
The outcome could lead to renewed efforts by House Democrats to compel testimony from other high-ranking officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
Not even the president’s closest aides who receive a subpoena from Congress can “ignore or defy congressional compulsory process, by order of the President or otherwise, “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson – an Obama appointee – wrote in ruling on a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee.
McGahn was a star witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and Democrats wanted to question McGahn about possible obstruction of justice by Trump. That was months before the House started an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden.
The administration will appeal Jackson’s ruling. “This decision contradicts longstanding legal precedent established by Administrations of both political parties,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said. “We will appeal and are confident that the important constitutional principle advanced by the administration will be vindicated.” The Justice Department will seek to put the ruling on hold in the meantime, department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec added.
William Burck, an attorney for McGahn, said the former White House counsel will comply with the subpoena, absent a court-imposed stay. New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said he hoped McGahn would “promptly appear before the committee.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement calling Jackson’s decision “yet another resounding ruling that the administration’s claim of ‘absolute immunity’ from Congress’s subpoenas has no basis in the law or our democracy, and must immediately cease. “
The White House has argued that McGahn and other witnesses have “absolute immunity” from testifying.
But such immunity “simply does not exist, “Jackson wrote in a 118 – page ruling. “That is to say, however busy or essential a presidential aide might be, and whatever their proximity to sensitive domestic and national-security projects, the president does not have the power to excuse him or her” from complying with a valid congressional subpoena, Jackson wrote.
“Presidents are not kings … they do not have subjects bound by loyalty or blood whose destiny they are entitled to control,” Judge Jackson ruled.
Here’s Matt Drake’s report.
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