Judge denies DOJ request for stay on Don McGahn testimony
By DARREN SAMUELSOHN and JOSH GERSTEIN
12/02/2019 06:53 PM EST
House Democrats on Monday notched another legal victory in their pursuit of critical testimony tied to their impeachment efforts, though the ruling may be short-lived because the case is already on temporary hold while it works its way toward an appeal.
U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a 17-page opinion, rejected the Justice Department’s request to put a long-term stay on her earlier opinion requiring Don McGahn, the former Trump White House counsel, to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
Jackson also decided to lift an earlier administrative stay she’d issued that had put her decision briefly on ice while the case moved up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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“This Court has no doubt that further delay of the Judiciary Committee’s enforcement of its valid subpoena causes grave harm to both the Committee’s investigation and the interests of the public more broadly,” Jackson wrote.
Last week, Jackson decided Trump couldn’t claim “absolute immunity” to prevent his former aides from testifying under oath. But she also later agreed to a seven-day freeze on her opinion to hear out the Justice Department on its arguments for a longer-term hold pending the appeal.
In the meantime, the department has backstopped itself against Jackson’s decision to reject its stay request. It has already secured a Jan. 3 hearing on its appeal before a three-judge panel that includes two appointees of past Republican presidents.
It’s also expected to win a longer-term stay of Jackson’s decision through the next month considering that the appellate court did just schedule arguments that would be of little importance if McGahn had already been required to appear.
more:
http://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/judge-denies-doj-request-don-mcgahn-074846
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