Remember when Donald Trump refused to sell off his businesses, or put them into a blind trust, to protect both domestic policies and foreign interests of the United States?
Remember when Donald Trump blasted national security by overriding the extraordinary letter from the combined heads of the FBI and security officials within the Department of Justice to release a memo that he felt gave him a political edge?
Remember when Donald Trump simply walked away from an international treaty, despite all parties—including U.S. inspectors—agreeing that the conditions of the treaty had been met?
Remember when Donald Trump took away Congress’ control over budgetary decisions by declaring a national emergency under false pretenses and simply appropriating the money that both House and Senate had just voted to refuse him?
While those not-so-ancient events may now seem a thousand scandals ago, you might still have noticed that we’re solidly in the middle of Donald Trump refusing to acknowledge Congress’ oversight authority, even when that authority comes attached to a subpoena.
Emoluments. National security concerns. Foreign policy. Budgetary constraints. Congressional oversight. It’s wrong to say that these represented “challenges to the Constitution” by Trump, because Trump simply walked over them with little but some fist-shaking in opposition. Exactly how much Constitution does this crisis have left?
As Democratic lawmakers take to the courts in an effort to apply some push-back to Trump’s latest power grab, a lot of Americans, in and out of government, are discovering that existing regulations on the executive branch are all looking rather toothless. Partly that’s by design. Partly that’s because the people who built up those rules always thought that shame would be an effective deterrent in most situations. Those people never met Donald Trump.
What Trump has done isn’t anything really new. He’s following the pathway smoothed out for him by Mitch McConnell, who years ago determined that the penalty for completely ignoring two centuries’ worth of rules, traditions, and practice was … picking up more seats in the Senate. But Trump has accelerated this game, especially since finding William Barr to be his Roy Cohn and insure Trump that what remains of the DOJ would never again cause him a bad day.
As CNN reports, Democratic lawmakers are now looking to the courts to find some way to react to Trump’s open nose-thumbing at congressional subpoenas. The House can, and almost certainly will, as indicated in the definitively tough memo from Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings, find those who are refusing to obey subpoenas to be in contempt of Congress.
But those contempt charges will have to be defended in court, and as Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna noted this week, “This is a cynical strategy by the Trump administration to delay any investigation and attempt to run out the clock before 2020." Not just to delay any investigation into the 2016 election or Trump’s finances, but to delay any oversight of anything.
What’s the best way to avoid any more of the endless scandals that have regularly turned up to send Trump officials tumbling away from D.C. and give his White House by far the highest turnover rate in history? Do let them talk to anyone. Don’t let anyone see what they’re working on. Don’t turn over their expenses, or their phone records, or their emails.
The blackout Trump is imposing isn’t a first step in creating an all-powerful executive—it’s the last. And if you’re still holding out for elections as the sole remaining institution that will save us ... What was it Michael Cohen said? “Given my experience working for President Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. " Yeah. That.