Congress prepares to drop the subpoena hammer on Donald Trump
Here’s how you know the investigations into Donald Trump’s scandals are reaching a point where he’s afraid of what’s going to happen to him: he and his White House are now outright refusing to cooperate with the requests of investigators, even while facing the prospect of running afoul of the law in the process. As a result, congressional committees are preparing to drop subpoenas on Trump’s head which could have unprecedented consequences.
Although Democrats like Adam Schiff and Elijah Cummings are struggling to get their Republican majorities on their respected House committees to agree to subpoenas, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are successfully moving forward. The committee chair, Republican Chuck Grassley, has confirmed to CNN that subpoenas are being drafted against the White House itself (link), and that the next steps with those subpoenas will essentially be Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein’s call.
If and when the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenas Trump and his White House to turn over the documents and records in question, the nation will be facing a potential constitutional crisis if Trump still refuses to comply. The Senate could hold Trump and/or his top officials in contempt of Congress, and they could convince a judge to order the documents to be turned over. If Trump and his people refuse to honor the court order, the judge could then theoretically order law enforcement officers to enter the White White and seize the documents. Anyone in the White House who tries to block the move, short of Trump himself, could be arrested for it.
As we head into this next phase of the investigation, we’re about to come up against the kinds of lines that even Richard Nixon ultimately refused to cross once he realized his Watergate scandal was going to take him down. Now we wait to see how Donald Trump handles the realization that his own demise is inevitable. Contribute to Palmer Report
