The Trump White House really, really doesn’t want any of its former staffers telling what they know about whether and how Donald Trump obstructed justice. The House Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed two more former Trump aides for a hearing Tuesday, but yet again the White House has asserted immunity to block them from testifying.
Former Trump campaign adviser and ex-White House deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn and former White House staff secretary Rob Porter have joined just about every other former Trump staffer the committee has subpoenaed, with current White House counsel Pat Cipollone writing, “The Department of Justice has advised me that Mr. Dearborn and Mr. Porter are absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters related to their service as senior advisers to the President.” That is, of course, the William Barr Department of Justice, specializing in Whatever Trump Wants.
This will join the slew of legal cases over the Trump administration’s frantic efforts to keep anyone from knowing what laws he obstructed when and how. (There’s really not much “if” about it.)
Tuesday’s hearing will have one headliner, though. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski plans to testify to try to raise his national profile and bolster his own political ambitions by waging a furious defense of Trump.