Elijah Cummings prepares to drop the hammer on Donald Trump on Monday
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings just finished facilitating Michael Cohen’s public testimony about Donald Trump’s crimes. Now Cummings is going after Trump on a different front, and he’s revealed that he’s preparing to drop the hammer on Trump this Monday.
Last night it was reported that Donald Trump ordered that his son-in-law Jared Kushner be given the highest possible security clearance, even though White House officials thought Kushner was a security risk. John Kelly and Don McGahn were both so concerned about this, they wrote memos distancing themselves from the move. This new reporting has given Elijah Cummings the leverage he needs to force the Trump regime’s hand.
Chairman Cummings sent a public letter today to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, demanding that all evidence and documents in this matter be immediately turned over. House Democrats have been trying to get to the bottom of the Kushner security clearance scandal for quite some time, but what’s different this time around is that they have the majority, and therefore subpoena power. Cummings is demanding a response by this Monday, and he’s making clear that if he has to ask again, it won’t be voluntary.
In other words, when the Trump White House fails to turn over the Kelly and McGahn memos on Monday, Elijah Cummings will subpoena them. If Trump tries to fight the subpoena in court, the newly reported revelations ensure that he’ll lose. And if any of his people are dumb enough to try to destroy the evidence instead of turning it over, they’ll go to prison for obstruction of justice.
Elijah Cummings is going to get his hands on the John Kelly and Don McGahn memos one way or the other. Even as the subpoena process plays out, it’s possible that Kelly and/or McGahn – who have both since left the White House less than amicably – may simply choose to give Cummings their own copies. These memos spell out precisely why Donald Trump’s own former top people think Jared Kushner is a security threat to the United States – and we should all get to see them soon. Cummings is dropping the hammer on Monday.
