AI
Tuesday, October 15, 2019 8:04:45 PM
If contempt of Congress can’t be enforced, then Congress isn’t a co-equal branch
"Is Rudy having money problems?
Giuliani and a key federal agency defy House Democrats' impeachment subpoena"
Our system of checks and balances works only if the legislative branch’s oversight power has teeth.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to announce a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News) (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
By Jack Quinn
Jack Quinn served as President Bill Clinton’s White House counsel from 1995-1997 and chief of staff to Vice President
Al Gore from 1993-1995. He is a CNN legal analyst and a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
September 25, 2019 at 4:57 a.m. GMT+10
During Corey Lewandowski’s contentious appearance last week before the House Judiciary Committee — to discuss special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s finding that President Trump asked Lewandowski to encourage then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself from overseeing the investigation — Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told the former Trump campaign manager that his behavior in committee was “completely unacceptable” and that holding him in contempt was “under consideration.” But no contempt vote took place.
[...]
... Congress has broad inherent powers to investigate, including the executive. In Lewandowski’s view, being compelled to testify was about “Trump haters” .. https://www.apnews.com/f7bb368cc17244d88f94db713035af5a .. going down “rabbit holes,” suggesting that he was justified in his selective answers to questions from members of Congress. But that’s not his call to make.
Like anyone else, he can be summoned to provide evidence in any well-lodged congressional investigation, reasonably related to the powers of the Congress defined in Article I of the Constitution. Lewandowski was plainly contemptuous of the Judiciary Committee when he refused to fully to cooperate with an investigation wholly within its power.
On that basis, he deserved to be held in contempt, and the failure of the committee to act immediately to levy meaningful consequences against him drove a nail in the coffin of contempt as a tool the legislative branch can use to maintain its place as an equal branch of the federal government.
[...]
There are logistical impediments, certainly, to the House directing its sergeant at arms to go out and arrest members of the executive branch, and if they tried, it could set up a new constitutional crisis within an existing one.
As Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes notes .. https://www.lawfareblog.com/witness-and-whistleblower-some-thoughts , asserting inherent contempt power in this way “hasn’t been deployed in a long time, and it’s not 100 percent clear that courts would tolerate it.” But there’s a risk that runs in the other direction: If the stonewalling of the current administration, and Congress’s acquiescence so far, wind up demonstrating that there’s nothing the legislative branch can do to enforce its power, then it’s difficult to say that we have an effective system of checks and balances — one of the ideas that animates our system of government.
Executive privilege disagreements are fought out in this area of delicate constitutional balance. As White House counsel during the days when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tortured the Clinton administration with specious investigations, I personally engaged in a number of those battles: The House Oversight and Reform Committee once voted to hold me in criminal contempt .. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-05-30-mn-10127-story.html .. when we were simply unable to compromise on a committee request for documents. The issue was eventually resolved, in part with the help of a GOP congressman also named Jack Quinn. He would joke that his constituents were outraged that their representative went to work for President Bill Clinton.
After that contempt vote, I called him up and said, “Jack, we have a problem.” He responded, “Yes, we do, and I better help you out of this mess.” It’s hard to imagine that kind of good-humored cross-party cooperation taking place now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/24/if-contempt-congress-cant-be-enforced-then-congress-isnt-co-equal-branch/
"Is Rudy having money problems?
Giuliani and a key federal agency defy House Democrats' impeachment subpoena"
Our system of checks and balances works only if the legislative branch’s oversight power has teeth.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to announce a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News) (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
By Jack Quinn
Jack Quinn served as President Bill Clinton’s White House counsel from 1995-1997 and chief of staff to Vice President
Al Gore from 1993-1995. He is a CNN legal analyst and a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
September 25, 2019 at 4:57 a.m. GMT+10
During Corey Lewandowski’s contentious appearance last week before the House Judiciary Committee — to discuss special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s finding that President Trump asked Lewandowski to encourage then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself from overseeing the investigation — Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told the former Trump campaign manager that his behavior in committee was “completely unacceptable” and that holding him in contempt was “under consideration.” But no contempt vote took place.
[...]
... Congress has broad inherent powers to investigate, including the executive. In Lewandowski’s view, being compelled to testify was about “Trump haters” .. https://www.apnews.com/f7bb368cc17244d88f94db713035af5a .. going down “rabbit holes,” suggesting that he was justified in his selective answers to questions from members of Congress. But that’s not his call to make.
Like anyone else, he can be summoned to provide evidence in any well-lodged congressional investigation, reasonably related to the powers of the Congress defined in Article I of the Constitution. Lewandowski was plainly contemptuous of the Judiciary Committee when he refused to fully to cooperate with an investigation wholly within its power.
On that basis, he deserved to be held in contempt, and the failure of the committee to act immediately to levy meaningful consequences against him drove a nail in the coffin of contempt as a tool the legislative branch can use to maintain its place as an equal branch of the federal government.
[...]
There are logistical impediments, certainly, to the House directing its sergeant at arms to go out and arrest members of the executive branch, and if they tried, it could set up a new constitutional crisis within an existing one.
As Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes notes .. https://www.lawfareblog.com/witness-and-whistleblower-some-thoughts , asserting inherent contempt power in this way “hasn’t been deployed in a long time, and it’s not 100 percent clear that courts would tolerate it.” But there’s a risk that runs in the other direction: If the stonewalling of the current administration, and Congress’s acquiescence so far, wind up demonstrating that there’s nothing the legislative branch can do to enforce its power, then it’s difficult to say that we have an effective system of checks and balances — one of the ideas that animates our system of government.
Executive privilege disagreements are fought out in this area of delicate constitutional balance. As White House counsel during the days when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tortured the Clinton administration with specious investigations, I personally engaged in a number of those battles: The House Oversight and Reform Committee once voted to hold me in criminal contempt .. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-05-30-mn-10127-story.html .. when we were simply unable to compromise on a committee request for documents. The issue was eventually resolved, in part with the help of a GOP congressman also named Jack Quinn. He would joke that his constituents were outraged that their representative went to work for President Bill Clinton.
After that contempt vote, I called him up and said, “Jack, we have a problem.” He responded, “Yes, we do, and I better help you out of this mess.” It’s hard to imagine that kind of good-humored cross-party cooperation taking place now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/24/if-contempt-congress-cant-be-enforced-then-congress-isnt-co-equal-branch/
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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