House Democrats request appeal asking court to enforce subpoena for former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn
By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann E. Marimow
March 6, 2020 at 12:14 p.m. EST
House Democrats asked a federal appeals court in Washington on Friday to reconsider enforcing a congressional subpoena for President Trump’s former White House counsel Donald McGahn.
The request comes after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found the courts have no authority to resolve the separation-of-powers dispute between the White House and Democrats in Congress.
Lawyers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) want a full complement of judges on the appeals court to overturn the ruling from a three-judge panel of the same court. If last week’s ruling stands, it means the president’s former White House counsel can defy the subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee.
Even if the full D.C. Circuit agrees to take a second look, the case is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
“This unprecedented ruling compels the attention of the full Court,” the House argued in a 113-page appeal, saying the Trump administration’s claims of absolute immunity from congressional oversight highlighted the scale and urgency of the legal stakes. “Present circumstances — in which the President has announced broadscale defiance of Congress’s oversight power — underscore how dramatically this ruling could upset the constitutional balance of powers.”
Attorneys for the House said the 2-1 ruling conflicts with a 1976 precedent in which the circuit court upheld the House’s standing to intervene in a lawsuit the Justice Department filed to block AT&T from complying with a subcommittee subpoena. Blocking the McGahn subpoena, the appeal argued, “prevents the House from carrying out its function as a check on the power of the Executive, and undermines Congress’s authority to fulfill” its constitutional responsibilities.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/house-democrats-request-appeal-asking-court-to-enforce-subpoena-for-former-trump-white-house-counsel-donald-mcgahn/2020/03/06/75e33bec-5f10-11ea-b29b-9db42f7803a7_story.html
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