Ex-White House lawyer McGahn ordered to comply with subpoena
A federal judge has ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to keep his top aides from testifying.
The outcome could lead to renewed efforts by House Democrats to compel testimony from other high-ranking officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
Not even the Republican president’s closest aides who receive subpoenas from Congress can “ignore or defy congressional compulsory process, by order of the President or otherwise,” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in ruling on a lawsuit filed by the House judiciary committee.
Bolton’s attorney suggested Tuesday that the court order directing McGahn to appear before Congress has no bearing on whether his client and another ex-national security official he represents will testify.
The statement from attorney Charles Cooper aimed to blunt public speculation that the judge’s order in the McGahn case could influence the actions of his own clients or halt a lawsuit from one of them challenging a subpoena in the House impeachment inquiry.
Cooper said Tuesday that former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman would continue to pursue his lawsuit in Washington’s federal court.
That lawsuit asks a judge to decide whether he must comply with a congressional subpoena in the House impeachment inquiry or abide by White House instructions that he not appear. The order for McGahn does not affect Kupperman’s case since Kupperman’s advice to the president exclusively concerns sensitive matters of national security, he said.
McGahn was a star witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and Democrats wanted to question McGahn about possible obstruction of justice by Trump. That was months before the House started an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of former vice-president Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Democrats announced the House judiciary committee is set to take over the impeachment probe, scheduling a hearing for next week as they push closer to a possible vote on actual charges of “high crimes and misdemeanours.”
The judiciary panel scheduled the hearing as the separate intelligence committee released two last transcripts from its depositions, including from a White House budget official who detailed concerns among colleagues as Trump ordered them, through intermediaries, to put a hold on military aid to Ukraine.
Trump ordered the hold as he was pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats — the issue at the heart of the impeachment probe.
Multiple government witnesses testified in impeachment hearings held by the intelligence panel this month that Trump directed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to take the lead on Ukraine policy and that Giuliani pushed an “irregular” diplomatic channel.
The intelligence committee is wrapping up the investigative phase of the probe and preparing its report for the next phase. Committee chair Adam Schiff has said the report could be released soon after the House returns from its Thanksgiving break.