TODAY IN CONGRESS (C-SPAN TV SCHEDULE) & More:
I am posting the daily C-Span TV schedule, when I can, for those here who may be interested in tuning in to see what Congress is up to. Also, I have provided the results of the previous day’s votes on some significant Bills/Resolutions, when Congress was in session the previous day and an update on the status of numerous Congressional Subpoenas and Impeachment Proceedings.
Here’s today’s schedule with the events I think may be the most interesting in bold. You can watch C-Span HERE. NOTE: Sometimes C-Span posts additional Congressional events not on my list, later in the day.
House:
1:00 pm — House Pro-Forma Session
Senate:
3:00 pm — Senate Session (The Senate meets to continue consideration of executive nominations with a vote scheduled on the nomination of John Rakolta to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.)
Yesterday’s Votes: No votes last Friday.
Comments:
Today’s Events – Nothing very interesting today since it’s Monday. So you are all free to go about your business.
COMMITTEE SUBPOENA WARS & IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS —
Today’s Impeachment Headline:
Hillary Clinton’s Zombie Impeachment Memo That Could Help Fell Trump
According to this POLITICO Story filed today, Clinton’s work as a Congressional Staffer during the Nixon impeachment process could come back and bite Trump in the a$$, probably putting a little vengeful smile on Hillary’s face:
“The bizarre, only-in-D.C. twist centers on a congressional report penned by a bipartisan team of young attorneys that included Hillary before she was a Clinton and written in the throes of Watergate. Then, unlike now, not a single lawmaker had been alive the last time Congress impeached a president. They had little understanding of how to try and remove Richard Nixon from the White House. So they tapped Clinton and a team of ambitious staffers to dive into the history of impeachment, stretching back to the 14th century in England: How has impeachment been used? What were the justifications? Can we apply it to Nixon?
The resulting document became a centerpiece of the congressional push to drive the Republican president from office. But then Nixon resigned. The memo was buried.
Until now, that is. The 45-year-old report has become a handbook House Democratic lawmakers and aides say they are using to help determine whether they have the goods to mount a full-scale impeachment effort against President Donald Trump, the same man who three years ago upended Hillary Clinton’s bid for a return trip to the White House.
”“I can only say that the impeachment Gods have a great sense of humor,” Alan Baron, an expert on the topic who has staffed four congressional impeachments against federal judges, said of the recurring role Hillary Clinton keeps playing in this story.””
Another possible proof of the old saying, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Introduction: Before I get started with today’s long list of subpoena and impeachment activity, let me point out that I have done my best to abbreviate the “Background” section of each Committee activity in order to shorten an already too long post. But for those who would like the full background, please see my September 9 TODAY IN CONGRESS Post where the last complete background is presented for each case.
Now on with the show. (New and Important stuff in bold)
House Judiciary Committee Barr Subpoena for Unredacted Mueller Report —
Background - Back in May, House Judiciary Chairman Nadler issued a subpoena AG Barr for the full, unredacted Mueller Report and all of the underlying documents. Of course Barr did not hand over any documents in response to this subpoena. So in June, the full House subsequently voted to give Chairman Nadler the power to go to court to enforce the subpoena. Sometime thereafter, Barr allowed Committee members and staff to review some of the underlying documents (i.e., FBI 302 Reports compiled during the Mueller investigation). On July 26, the Committee went to Federal Court to get portions of the Mueller Report released to Congress, arguing they need the information in order to decide whether to impeach President Donald Trump. The interesting part of this (to me anyway) is that these Grand Jury transcripts are held by the Judicial Branch of government not just the DoJ. So the courts can decide to release them directly to Congress instead of having to go through Trump’s DoJ.
New Developments — None, waiting for Court proceedings.
House Judiciary Committee McGahn Subpoena —
Background — In April, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to former White House Counsel Don McGahn for both documents and testimony regarding his statements documented in the Mueller Report pertaining to Trump’s attempts at obstruction of justice. Trump directed McGahn to defy the subpoena, which he did. In response, the House voted in June to adopt a resolution granting the House Judiciary Committee authority to take former White House counsel McGahn to federal court to enforce subpoenas. In preparation for the anticipated Court battle, Trump’s DoJ provided a legal opinion making the totally fictitious and silly claim that McGahn has “Absolute Immunity” from testifying about any matters he discussed with Trump as WH Counsel. On August 7, the Judiciary Committee exercised the power granted to them by the full House and filed a lawsuit to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Don McGahn, in a long-awaited effort to secure his testimony and defeat the White House’s efforts to block former top advisers from testifying about their West Wing tenure. Most significantly, the court filing finally resolved the question the Media has been hounding Congressional Democrats on for months, “Is this an Impeachment Inquiry?”
The McGahn case has been randomly assigned to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. Jackson has ruled against the Trump administration in prior cases last year, including ruling against the Department of Health and Human Services in June 2018 and striking down executive orders related to federal workers and unions last August.
On August 27, the House Judiciary Committee asked the court to expedite lawsuit seeking Don McGahn's testimony.
On or about September 3, the Judge in the McGahn case set a schedule for the proceedings. By Oct. 1, the Justice Department and McGahn are due to respond to the House's initial filing. The House would then have two weeks to reply to their arguments, and the Justice Department would have until Oct. 25 to respond again.
A Motion Hearing before Judge Jackson of the D.C. Circuit will take place October 31 at 2 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. A Hearing on Halloween, How Scary! Stay Tuned!
New Developments — None, waiting for Court proceedings.
House Judiciary Committee Hicks and Donaldson Subpoenas —
Background — On May 22, the Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to both Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, and Annie Donaldson, former deputy White House counsel under Don McGahn, seeking both documents in their possession and testimony before the Committee. In response, on June 4, the White House instructed the two former aides to defy congressional subpoenas that sought documents related to allegations that President Donald Trump obstructed justice.
In the case of Hope Hicks, she released a limited number of documents to the Committee in June (presumably pre-cleared by the White House) and appeared before the Committee answering only a few questions and none about her time as WH Communications Director, as she was blocked from responding to over 150 questions on the legally very shaky grounds of “Absolute Immunity” by the White House Counsel sitting next to her.
With regard to Donaldson, she has struck a deal with the Committee to provide written responses to the Committee’s questions and testify in person in November. The deal is to accommodate the fact that Donaldson is in her third trimester of a pregnancy and is unwilling to travel to D.C. at this time.
New Developments — None, apparently waiting on results of the McGahn case.
House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas of Sessions, Kushner and Other Trump Staff —
Background — The House Judiciary Committee has voted to authorize Chairman Nadler to issue subpoenas for 12 of former special counsel Robert Mueller's witnesses — including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his former deputy Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former chief of staff John Kelly and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
On August 15, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) subpoenaed former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House official Rick Dearborn, marking Democrats’ latest efforts to receive testimony from key figures in the Mueller report.
On September 9 Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who subpoenaed Lewandowski to testify by Sept. 17, announced that he would appear in public on that date. What he says or doesn’t say is another matter since he remains a staunch believer in Trump’s “Witch Hunt” fantasy. Stay Tuned!
New Developments — None, waiting for Lewandowski testimony.
House Judiciary Committee Rob Porter Subpoena —
Background — On August 26, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, a key witness in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation into President Donald Trump. Porter, who resigned his post last year amid allegations that he abused his two ex-wives, was at the president’s side during several episodes of potential obstruction chronicled in Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s attempts to thwart the probe.
New Developments — None.
House Judiciary Committee Homeland Security Subpoena —
Background — On September 3, House Judiciary Subpoenaed Homeland Security Over Alleged Trump Pardon Promises. Trump, according to Nadler, citing media reports, “reportedly discussed” pardoning McAleenan if he proceeded with building a southern border wall despite legal obstacles, or taking action to block illegal immigration by claiming to judges there wasn’t enough capacity to allow them into the country. The subpoena requires McAleenan to produce the requested documents on this matter by September 17.
New Developments — None, waiting for McAleenan’s response.
House Intelligence Committee Subpoena —
Background — Back in May, the House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to AG Barr for “documents and materials related Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials produced during the Special Counsel’s investigation, the full unredacted report, and the underlying evidence”. Although Barr did not fully comply with the subpoena, he did make a counter offer to the Committee to turn over a limited number of documents. Based on this offer, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) decided to hold off on enforcement action against the Justice Department since it had agreed to turn over documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In addition, the infamous Felix Sater (of Trump Moscow Project fame) testified voluntarily before the Intelligence Committee in a Closed Door session. However, members of the Committee were not impressed. A committee spokesman accused Sater of being uncooperative and obstructing the panel’s investigation by withholding documents and testimony in defiance of a subpoena.
Also, on June 13, the Committee issued two (2) more subpoenas. The intelligence panel said it had subpoenaed former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn….” “..."As part of our oversight work, the House Intelligence Committee is continuing to examine the deep counterintelligence concerns raised in Special Counsel Mueller's report, and that requires speaking directly with the fact witnesses," Schiff, a Democrat from California, said in a statement.
According to Committee Staff, "General Flynn and his counsel have failed to cooperate with the Committee in all respects — he has provided no documents in response to our subpoena, nor has he engaged with the Committee in an appropriate or satisfactory manner."
The committee is now demanding that Flynn appear on September 25 and provide documents by September 18, according to a letter Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, sent to Flynn on Friday.
It seems Flynn’s new Counsels who are pro-Trumpers and believe in the “Witch Hunt” theory have caused Flynn to go over to the Dark Side.
New Developments — None, waiting for Flynn’s response.
House Financial Services Committee and House Intelligence Committee Deutsche Bank and Capital One Subpoenas (Trump’s Banking Records) —
Background — Back in May, the aforementioned Committees issued subpoenas to two banks for Trump’s financial records. However, Trump went to court to try to block the turn over. Then on May 23, a federal judge took a rare step of ruling from the bench and rejected President Trump's effort to block congressional subpoenas seeking his financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. But the Trump Organization filed an Appeal (of course). On July 19, Lawyers for President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a motion the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit seeking to reverse a lower court’s decision denying Trump’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Deutsche Bank from releasing financial records to the House Committee on Financial Services.
On August 23, the Judicial Hearing on Trump’s financial records was held. Both sides said during Friday’s hearing that they might be willing to negotiate about the scope of the subpoena, and that they had made such offers before. But the Committee’s lawyer said he believed Trump’s offer to negotiate was “insincere,” which Trump’s lawyer denied.”
But in a surprise question from the bench, Circuit Judge Jon Newman asked lawyers for Deutsche Bank and Capital One if they have Trump’s tax returns or those of his children.
On August 27, Deutsche Bank Confirmed to the Court that It Has Tax Returns Requested by Subpoenas for President Trump and Family. However, Capital One said it does not possess any tax returns responsive to the subpoena.”
So if the Judge decides in the Committee’s favor, they could also get some of the Trump family tax returns in addition to other financial records, pending an appeal of course.
New Developments — None.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena (Financial Records) —
Background — Way back in April (I think) the House Oversight and Reform Committee issued a subpoena requiring Trump’s former accounting firm (Mazars) to hand over Trump’s financial records. Of course Trump went to Federal Court to block this subpoena and on May 20, Federal Judge Amit Mehta handed down a ruling which stated that Congress was well within their oversight authority in requesting the records and that Mazars must honor the subpoena in 7 days. Of course Trump appealed this ruling. So on July 12 a three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals held a Hearing on Trump’s appeal in the Mazar’s case and it didn’t go well for Team Trump. Note — There was an actual voice recording made of this Hearing. C-Span has the Oral Argument HERE. Although the panel expressed significant doubts about Trump’s arguments, they decided to delay issuing a ruling in this case to let DoJ chime in on this case. ”
On August 5, Trump’s DoJ headed by his own Roy Cohn (AG Barr), weighed in on the Mazars’ case with this:
“The department argued in the court document that the House subpoena amounted to little more than presidential harassment, claiming the subpoena serves no “legitimate legislative purpose.”
Why am I not surprised!
New Developments — None, as far as I can tell we are still waiting for the Appeals Court decision in this case while they presumably digest the crap they got from Trump’s DoJ.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoenas of White House Staff Documents —
Background — On July 26, the House Oversight and Reform Committee voted to authorize subpoenas for senior White House officials’ communications via private email accounts and messaging applications. On a party-line vote, the committee authorized Cummings to subpoena all communications sent or received since President Donald Trump took office that were not forwarded to official email accounts within 20 days, as required by law.
New Developments — None, still waiting to see if Cummings issues subpoenas.
House Ways & Means Committee Subpoena (Trump’s Tax Returns) —
Background — The Committee is in the process of enforcing its subpoena against Mnuchin and the IRS. However, in anticipation of the legal battle ahead DoJ has now filed a legal opinion with respect to Trump’s taxes. In it “the DOJ acknowledged that a plain-language reading of Section 6103(f) of the Internal Revenue Code required compliance and an obligation on the part of the IRS to turn over the requested tax returns — but then the DOJ divined and opined that Chairman Neal’s request had no legislative justification and was a pretextual means to a public disclosure end result that was ultimately motivated by politics.” So they acknowledge Democrats have a strong case via a plain reading of the law, but they can’t have Trump’s tax returns because the DoJ feels the Democrats have illicit motives. Yeah, that will fly in Court when a pig flys.
But with regard to Trump’s NYS Tax Returns, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed a bill that would allow certain members of Congress to access President Donald Trump's New York state tax returns.
However, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman McNeal has said he does not expect to request Trump’s State taxes since he fears it weakens his case to obtain Trump’s Federal Taxes. It’s Complicated! However, the Committee did file a lawsuit in Federal Court on July 2 against both Mnuchin and IRS Director Rettig. Let’s hope the Courts see the urgency of these matters.
On July 23, Trump went on offense by firing a retaliatory strike. He filed suit in Federal Court to block the release of both his Federal and State tax returns to the House Ways & Means Committee and to the NYS AG.
Also, some possibly unscrupulous dealings have been revealed involving Trump’s tax returns. “A federal employee turned over “credible” evidence to House Democrats of possible “inappropriate efforts to influence” the IRS presidential audit process,
On September 6, Trump lawyers asked a federal judge to dismiss House Democrats’ lawsuit seeking to force him to turn over his federal tax returns. The move comes after the judge hearing the case, Trevor McFadden, last week rejected House Democrats’ bid to fast track their suit.
On September 9, President Trump’s lawyers argued in a court document that a federal judge should deny a motion to dismiss his lawsuit challenging New York's law that allows Congress to request his tax returns. The New York officials argued in their motion to dismiss the president's suit that the case should not be heard in federal court in Washington, D.C., and should either be dismissed or heard in federal court in New York.
There is a Motion Hearing in D.C. Circuit Court on September 18 (this Wednesday) before Judge Nichols in the case of TRUMP v. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS. Stay Tuned.
New Developments — None.
In the words of Porky Pig, TTTHHHATTTS All Folks! Have a nice weekend!