Make no mistake about it, Trump’s scorched earth war on Congressional oversight and investigation makes war on the Constitution itself. As a nation, we are lost if the Constitution does not fight back and win; it’s army must be the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives.
Democrats should recognize immediately that they are on their own in this fight. Republicans in the Senate and everywhere are too corrupt and too far in the tank for Trump’s base to do anything but aid and abet the President’s unprecedented obstruction of oversight. Trump’s Justice Department, now under the thumb of the demonstrably corrupt William Barr, won’t lift a finger to help enforce Congressional subpoenas. In the age of Trump, even the judiciary has become a less reliable champion of the Rule of Law than we have a right to expect. Also, the glacial time scales of court action fail to serve the exigency of this Constitutional Congress.
So, taking Attorney General Barr’s refusal to testify to the House Judiciary Committee as an example, what should House Democrats do? Jeffrey Toobin on CNN just said it doesn’t matter because House Democrats are powerless to enforce their will to conduct oversight when an Administration refuses to cooperate. Powerless? Really?
No, not if House Democrats use every last millivolt of the House’s full Constitutional power. House Democrats have all the Constitutional power, as well as the immediate means at hand, which they need to track down, detain, and bring an uncooperative witness to the Capitol to testify.
Congress can mostly bypass the Justice Department and Courts, initially at least, and directly enforce the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena power through the Office of Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives, a law enforcement and police agency, among other duties.
Ideally, the Judiciary Committee could vote out a package to the House Floor that beefs up the Sergeant at Arms’ capabilities for supporting oversight and investigation enforcement such as arrests of witnesses and seizures of records, along with a specific writs of contempt and warrants for the arrest of Attorney General Barr.
An analyst at NBC laughs off the idea of direct Congressional enforcement of its own oversight powers, given that the ability to do so has lain dormant since 1935 and the AG enjoys protection of an FBI detail. But I wouldn’t bet that FBI agent’s would knowingly obstruct justice, a career ending felony with a 5 year statute of limitations. Rather, they’d be expected to obey lawfully issued writs from Congress, and to stand aside and instruct the AG he has to leave with the nice people from Capitol Hill. And Constitutional power doesn’t expire just because it goes unused for a while.
Congress needs to stand up and bellow back at Trump’s obstruction of oversight, with all the power at the Institution’s disposal. The Constitution itself is at stake.