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:
10:00 am — House Morning Session (General Speeches)
10:00 am — House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Voting Discrimination (A House Judiciary subcommittee holds a hearing on voting discrimination.)
12:00 pm — House Session (The House is expected to consider a bill prohibiting oil and natural gas drilling for much of the U.S. offshore waters by permanently banning oil and natural gas leasing off the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Also, five housing and banking bills)
2:00 pm — House Judiciary Committee on Gun Violence Prevention (The House Judiciary Committee convenes to consider a number of gun violence prevention bills.)
Senate:
10:00 am — Senate Banking Committee Hearing on Housing Reform (HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency testify on housing finance reform before the Senate Banking Committee.)
10:00 am — Senate Session (The Senate will consider more judicial and executive nominations including Kelly Craft to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.)
Yesterday’s Votes: No significant votes in House or Senate.
Comments:
Today’s Events –
House — If I had to pick one thing to watch today, it would be the House Judiciary Committee session on gun violence. I would note that the House has already sent some great gun violence legislation over to the Senate which “MoscowMitch is sitting on. But it will be interesting to see what new legislation the Committee is considering.
Senate — In the Senate, just more sticken Trump nominees.
COMMITTEE SUBPOENA WARS & IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS —
Today’s Impeachment Headline:
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE LAYS OUT RULES AND PROCEDURES FOR ITS IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATION
As many of you already know, yesterday the House Judiciary Committee laid out its proposed resolution containing the rules and procedures it would use in its FORMAL Impeachment process. Below is a summary of these rules and procedures which I have plucked from this NBC News story:
“The resolution, should it pass, would make the following four changes to the committee rules governing hearings:
- It would allow the chairman to designate full committee or subcommittee hearings as part of the impeachment probe.
- It would allow staff to question witnesses for an additional hour, equally divided between the majority and minority.
- It would allow for secret grand jury material to be reviewed in closed executive session.
- It would allow for the president’s counsel to respond to information and testimony presented in committee in writing and give the chairman authority to invite the president’s counsel to review and respond in writing to executive session materials.
These procedures are expected to follow those the Judiciary Committee used in 1974 during the Nixon impeachment proceedings.”
If you ask me, the most important of the above rules is the second one. Allowing Committee staff to question witness is huge because often they are the most prepared and as such, ask the most probing questions that can pin down a reluctant witness. Also, note the last line in the above story excerpt. Perhaps the fact that these rules and procedures are similar if not identical to the ones used by this Committee in the Nixon case will finally get the media to stop their inscent and frankly annoying speculation over whether this is or is not an Impeachment inquiry. IT IS!
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. I have also realized that since the “Background” section is basically the same from day-to-day, most of you who follow my TODAY IN CONGRESS series have already read and know the background of each case. But for those who are new to the series or those who have read them before and just want a background refresher, 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.
New Developments — On or about September 3, the Judge in the McGahn case set a schedule for the proceedings. According to this POLITICO Story:
“Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, set a schedule for action in the House's lawsuit that begins Oct. 1, when 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 hearing before Jackson would take place Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. It's unclear how quickly she might issue her ruling after the hearing.”
A Hearing on Halloween, How Scary! While this is likely expedited a bit due to the Committee’s August 27 request, it does delay any McGahn testimony until November at the absolute earliest. So I am not optimistic about seeing draft Articles of Impeachment before the end of the year, especially when one considers other Court proceedings that will take even longer.
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.
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.
New Developments — Lewandowski will testify publicly! According to this report from The Hill:
”Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who subpoenaed Lewandowski to testify by Sept. 17, announced on Monday that he would appear on that date.
Nadler has also subpoenaed former White House officials Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn to testify with Lewandowski at a joint hearing, noting that all three are tied to a key episode of possible obstruction by Trump described in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
But it is unclear if Porter and Dearborn will appear, since the White House has successfully blocked both former and current officials from testifying publicly up until this point.”
But his testimony may not be what you would expect.
“I am an open book. I want to go and remind the American people that these guys are on a witch hunt, right?” Lewandowski, who is considering a New Hampshire Senate run, told Fox News Radio last month.”
It will be interesting to see how Lewandowski maintains his combative rhetoric without committing Perjury. But then again, he might not care, afterall does anyone really believe that AG Barr of the Trump Justice Department would prosecute Lewandowski for lying to Congress? Don’t answer that.
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.
New Developments — None
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.
New Developments — Flynn Refuses to Cooperate with Committee subpoena! According to this
CNN Story:
"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," a committee staffer said. "General Flynn agreed to cooperate with the United States government, which should include the Congress. And while we cannot evaluate whether he has met his obligation to the Justice Department, there is no question that he has thus far failed to cooperate with the Congress in any meaningful way."
So...
”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. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in his legal settlement hearing that plays out in Court TODAY. Back almost a year ago now the Judge in this case urged Flynn to go back and cooperate more or face what the Judge’s tone suggested would be a long prison term. I can’t believe the Judge will take too kindly to his new legal team and his decision to stop cooperating.
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 Barr & Ross —
Background — Back in April, the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross regarding the 2020 census. Of course both Barr and Ross ignored these subpoenas. So, on June 12, in response to being ignored, the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend to the Full House that Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross be held in Contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with subpoenas to provide documents and information related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Then on July 17, the House passed a Resolution holding both AG Barr and Secretary Wilbur Ross in Contempt of Congress for ignoring Congressional subpoenas requiring them to turn over certain documents related to the Census proposed Citizenship question.
Let’s be clear, the Contempt Resolution passed by the House was NOT “Inherent Contempt” that can be enforced directly by the House. The type of contempt passed by the House was basically a referral to DoJ for enforcement. So of course, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that federal prosecutors will not prosecute Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross following a House vote to hold the officials in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas.
Now why are we all NOT surprised! Did anyone in Congress really think Trump’s DoJ was going to prosecute a Trump cabinet official and their own AG? I would hope not.
New Developments — None. Nothing has happened since then on these subpoenas. But that is probably because our side won the Court fight over the addition of the Citizenship question to the 2020 census, or more accurately Trump decided to wave the white flag and not further pursue the legal battle to put the question on the census. So the Committee is either quietly ending the contempt fight or at least has put it on the back burner.
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.
Looks like this route to Trump’s taxes may be a long one.
New Developments — None.