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Asked by a federal judge what the House can do to enforce its subpoenas, Justice Department lawyer James Burnham said without hesitation that the House can use its impeachment powers, among other options, like withholding appropriations.
“In the category of you can’t make this stuff up,” Schiff said on the Senate floor. “The judge says if the Congress can’t enforce its subpoenas in court, then what remedy is there? And the Justice Department lawyer’s response is impeachment.”
Eliciting laughter from the senators, Schiff, a California Democrat, continued, “You can’t make this up. I mean, what more evidence do we need of the bad faith of this effort to cover up?”
During the court hearing, in response to Burnham’s suggestion about impeachment, Judge Randolph Moss responded, “that is really not a great state of affairs for this country,” if the House should impeach the President over every subpoena that his administration ignores.
Even though the case isn’t about impeachment, the judge’s actions could influence other impeachment-related cases, and the arguments several times danced near major issues appearing in the Senate impeachment trial. Several cases on related issues are currently being litigated.
Moss repeatedly pressed Burnham to explain what the House can do if a subpoena is ignored — and if they don’t have many options, the subpoenas are more like voluntary requests. The Justice Department has argued that the House can’t ask the courts to enforce subpoenas.
“Mere assertion of a privilege or objection in a legitimate interbranch dispute is a constitutional prerogative,” Trump lawyer Robert Ray said Monday. “It should never result in an impeachable offense for abuse of power or obstruction of Congress.”
Contradiction addressed in court
Later in the hearing, DOJ’s Burhman explained why the Trump administration believes it’s not contradicting itself during the impeachment trial.
Burnham said the Democratic-controlled House wants to have it both ways: It wants to impeach the President for obstruction of Congress and also ask courts to enforce its subpoenas for executive branch information.
And, Burnham conceded, the Trump administration wants it both ways, too — no impeachment, and no court cases.
“They are hypocrites. We are hypocrites, I guess,” Burnham said in court Thursday. Many of the lawyers in the nearly packed courtroom laughed.
In court, the Justice Department has maintained for months that judges shouldn’t have power to settle standoffs between Congress and the White House.
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