Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to voice her opposition to impeaching President Donald Trump — much to the chagrin of pro-impeachment House Democrats — she is very much in favor of aggressive House investigations of the president. And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is threatening to hold all Trump officials who have defied House subpoenas in contempt of Congress next week.
One of the people in danger of being held in contempt of Congress is former White House Communications Hope Hicks, who the Trump White House has ordered to defy a House Judiciary Committee subpoena. Hicks, however, has expressed some willingness to cooperate with the Committee and has already provided some of the documents that Rep. Jerry Nadler (chairman of the Committee) has requested. Nadler has described Hicks’ actions as an act of “good faith” and indicated that he will continue to negotiate with her as well as with Annie Donaldson, a top aide to former White House Counsel Don McGahn and another recipient of a House subpoena.
Hoyer, speaking to reporters this week, said of Hicks and other Trump allies who might defy subpoenas, “This is the way to enforce the subpoena and to compel witnesses to testify that we have a constitutional responsibility — not just authority, but a constitutional responsibility — to get information on the operations of the people’s government that the American people should have. And if the administration and the president take the position, ‘We’re not going to cooperate,’ that’s untenable and unacceptable. And we’re going to move forward to try to enforce that, and this is the first but important step.”
View the complete June 5 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.