The nation’s capital has yet again found itself embroiled in political controversy after Democratic leaders in the House sent out a number of important subpoenas to White House officials. The Democratic Party is intent on getting to the bottom of Russian interference in the 2016 election and will doubtlessly keep issuing legal demands for information and testimony from those in the White House, yet President Trump and his cronies have made it clear they intend to fight this subpoena showdown tooth and nail.
President Trump’s subpoena meltdown illustrates his guilt while simultaneously elucidating how totally out of depth he is when it comes to the separation of powers. Here’s why American citizens can’t let his subpoena meltdown be the end of the story.
Subpoenas are the only way to find the truth
From the earliest days of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, President Trump and his legal team have bee obfuscating and attempting to obstruct the pursuit of justice because they’re scared of what a probe might uncover. Never has this been more obvious than recently, when the president reacted with infantile rage upon the release of Special Counsel Mueller’s report. The White House’s latest efforts to battle subpoenas legitimately issued by Democratic congress members will backfire, but that doesn’t mean the American people can ignore them.
This is because the president is bluffing – he’s trying to convince the public and congressional leaders alike that they lack the power to subpoena him under any circumstances. The constitution clearly grants congress the authority to issue subpoenas in the pursuit of its legislative responsibilities, however, and given the president’s blatant coverup it would be political malpractice not to issue subpoenas to the likes of White House lawyer Don McGahn.
If the Democratic leaders in congress don’t fiercely meet President Trump’s refusal to play ball with harsh threats that they’ll follow up on, the president will understand he can avoid any sort of accountability by continuing to obfuscate and prevent subpoenas from being fulfilled. President Trump thinks he’s the best poker player in the world, but it’s time that Americans call his bluff. If congressional leaders push with the full might of their legal authority, the president and his cronies will be forced to respond to subpoenas or, as their Latin-name implies, fall under the penalty of the law.
The president’s authority is not unlimited
When President Trump recently took the outrageous steps of instructing Don McGahn not to answer the subpoena leveled at him by Democratic members of Congress, he was effectively asserting that his executive authority was unlimited. Congress has total authority to subpoena whomever it wishes in the pursuit of its legislative responsibilities, so the president’s decision to block the White House lawyer from testifying was a clear meddling with the constitution in an effort to legally shield himself. If the American people take this sitting down, we’re effectively kissing the rule of law goodbye.
The president’s authority is not unlimited, and it’s time for Democratic members of Congress to remind him of that fact. Those who fail to comply with subpoenas must be held accountable to the law, and furthermore congressional leaders should be relying on their power of the purse to defund agencies and projects championed by those who refuse to answer their legal summons. If the president wants to instruct his cronies to obfuscate before the American people, Congress must step up and use its exceptionally powerful control over the nation’s spending to force compliance.
This subpoena meltdown won’t be the end of our republic; we’ve endured far worse than Donald Trump before, and his juvenile efforts to obstruct justice won’t succeed. Nevertheless, the threat we’re facing is a grave one, and it would be foolish to believe that Republicans are going to start playing by the rules anytime soon. Democratic members of Congress need to wake up to the partisan reality of the modern world and understand that the GOP will never harm Donald Trump under any circumstances. Until Democratic leaders in Congress force the president’s men to answer to their subpoenas, the wannabe tyrant in the White House will continue to believe he’s above the law.