Seventy-three Donald Trump associates suddenly have a big problem on their hands

| 6:04 pm EDT March 19, 2019
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When the House Judiciary Committee sent document requests to eighty-one Trump related people and entities, it was a given that only a fraction of them would voluntarily cooperate. After all, would you be eager to turn over evidence that could incriminate yourself or your allies? Now we’re getting numbers, and it’s eye popping.

Last night House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler announced on MSNBC that Steve Bannon had helpfully turned over several thousand Trump-related documents. Now the Republicans on the committee are claiming that just eight document request targets, out of eighty-one in total, have complied. Based on their track record we’re not inclined to take the Republicans on this committee at their word. But Politico has pieced together what it believes are the identities of the eight people; the ones you’ve heard of are Bannon, Tom Barrack, the NRA, George Papadopoulos, and Sam Nunberg. Of course the real story here is what happens to the people who didn’t comply.

Seventy-three Trump related people and entities are about to get forcibly subpoenaed to turn over the documents in question. Some of them will try to fight it by employing various legal tactics. But the bottom line is that the House Judiciary Committee is going to win most or all of these fights. The committee can also take its fight to the court of public opinion by publicly revealing precisely why it’s asking these specific people for these specific documents.

At least some of these seventy-three people have another problem on their hands. For example, let’s say that you worked for the Trump campaign while it was being run by Steve Bannon. Even if you refuse to turn over the documents you have, for all you know, Bannon may have already turned over his own copies of those same documents. So you may be holding out and fighting a losing legal battle for nothing. We expect to see some additional folks cave and cooperate in the coming days, for just this reason.