Donald Trump’s White House henchmen caught in the middle of something that’s about to end very badly for them
Even as House Democrats line up a series of crucial witnesses whose televised testimony will help shape the impeachment argument for the American people, Donald Trump and his Attorney General William Barr are making the last ditch move of trying to prevent these witnesses from testifying. These individuals are finally facing their moment of truth – and it’s about to get ugly for someone involved.
Donald Trump has no real ability to block former employees like Don McGahn from testifying. But he’s ordering current employees not to show up, even if they’re subpoenaed. This constitutes felony obstruction of justice on Trump’s part, but he’s already so far down the road of criminality, perhaps he figures that committing more crimes is the least of his problems. It’s a different story, however, for the employees caught up in this mess.
For instance, security clearance scandal central figure Carl Kline had publicly stated that he would defy a subpoena and refuse to testify for the House Oversight Committee. This would have resulted in him being held in contempt, heavily fined, and possibly arrested. House Republicans stepped in at the last minute and convinced Trump to let Kline testify after all, but with limits on what can be asked. Committee Chair Elijah Cummings says he won’t abide by any such limitations. So we’re looking at a scenario in which Kline gets a question that Trump ordered him not to answer, and Kline can either defy Trump and likely get fired, or Kline can defy Cummings and maybe get arrested on the spot.
We’re going to see quite a number of similar scenarios coming up in short order with other witnesses who work for Donald Trump. What we weren’t expecting, at least not so soon, was for William Barr to become one of those employees. He’s now threatening to bail on his own House testimony this upcoming week, because he’s afraid to face the professional prosecutor who will be asking the questions on behalf of House Democrats.
We’ve been wondering which of Donald Trump’s uncooperative witnesses would end up being the first to get busted for it by House Democrats. Kline was a leading contender. Stephen Miller, who is also refusing to show up and testify, is another. But now House Democrats are being handed a justified opportunity to make an example out of William Barr himself. The Democrats can’t risk being seen as arbitrarily arresting Trump’s people without good reason. But if Barr refuses to show up, they’ll look 100% justified in taking any legal remedy available to them.
