The White House is continuing its efforts to defy Congress as new reports note that the Trump administration has directed former White House counsel Donald McGahn not to comply with a Congressional subpoena related to Robert Muellerโs investigation.
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Despite McGahn now being a private citizen, the White House is arguing that asking for documents related to Muellerโs Russia investigation fall under McGahnโs time as White House counsel and are therefore privileged information.
Those documents โremain legally protected from disclosure under longstanding constitutional principles, because they implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests and executive privilege,โcurrent White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter Tuesday, NBC News reports. Cipollone added that the House Judiciary Committee โdoes not have the legal right to disclose these documents.โ
McGahn and his documents were subpoenaed last month by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), as the panel was attempting to investigate whether president obstructed justice.
But the current White House counsel shut that down, as theyโve been doing with several committee requests. Not only did Cipollone say that McGahn wonโt be producing documents but added that all subsequent requests should be sent directly to the White House so he can Dikembe Mutombo those shits himself.
Oh and get this, Cipollone added that the Justice Department โis aware of and concurs with this legal positionโ and this makes sense considering that this department is run by Mr. William โYabaa Dabba Doo Anything the President Wantsโ Barr.
McGahn faced a Tuesday deadline to turn over documents and as it stands, heโs not turned over anything.
Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the White House was โseeking to accommodate Democratsโ unwieldy demands,โ which is totally bullshit, but whatever.
Jesus wept.
And Mueller punted. He didnโt charge Trump with obstruction of justice but he did note several instances that included witness tampering and attempts to disrupt the investigation.
McGahn knows a lot about this, which is why Nadler and crew want him and his documents to step in front of the firing squad.
Nadler notes that McGahn โis a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report.โ
McGahnโs testimony to Congress would help โshed further light on the presidentโs attacks on the rule of law and his attempts to cover up those actions by lying to the American people and requesting others do the same,โ Nadler said, NBC News reports.
Not to mention that Muellerโs report cites two times in which McGahn and Trump had phone calls in which the president โdirectedโ his then counsel to contact Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to have Mueller โremovedโ โ which, along with many other instances, and according to some 450 lawyers, would amount to obstruction of justice.
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