McGahn skips hearing as impeachment talk stirs up

Nadler: ‘We will hold this president accountable’

WASHINGTON >> New divides opened among House Democrats on Tuesday over how to uphold Congress’ oversight powers in the face of President Donald Trump’s stonewalling, with a sizable bloc of progressive lawmakers pushing for the first time over their leaders’ objections to start an impeachment inquiry.

Democrats were at odds about how to fight the latest defiance of a House subpoena, this time by former White House counsel Don McGahn, who skipped a scheduled hearing Tuesday about Trump’s attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., House Judiciary Committee chairman, promised to hold McGahn in contempt of Congress and warned Trump and other potential witnesses to expect new hardball tactics. Democratic lawmakers and aides said they could include new subpoenas, possible rules changes allowing the House to fine people held in contempt and threats to Trump’s legislative priorities as leverage for compliance.

“We will not allow the president to stop this investigation, and nothing in these unjustified and unjustifiable legal attacks will stop us from pressing forward with our work on behalf of the American people,” Nadler said during a brief hearing of an emotionally raw Judiciary Committee. “We will hold this president accountable, one way or the other.”

The Democrats’ divisions spring from a shared fear that Trump is succeeding not just in evading congressional accountability himself but in

permanently rewriting the rules of engagement between the legislative and executive branches, freeing future presidents from one of the Constitution’s most potent checks on their power.

“We can focus on McGahn. We can focus on Barr. We can focus on Michael Cohen. We can call the roll,” Rep. Val B. Demings, D-Fla., a member of the Judiciary Committee who supports impeachment, said in an interview. “But the problem here is the president of the United States.”

Their concerns that Trump might be permanently weakening Congress’ powers prompted prominent

progressive lawmakers on and off the Judiciary Committee to declare in private meetings and public statements in the past 24 hours that they saw no choice but to initiate an impeachment inquiry.

The new supporters of impeachment included Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., a co-chairman of the influential Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., vice chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee.

They argued that such an investigation would streamline disparate House inquiries and empower the committees in their push to conduct oversight of the executive branch. And they expressed hope it would show the public that the fight over documents and witnesses is not just another Washington

partisan squabble, but a showdown with historic implications.

“Congress has patiently tried to work within traditional means to get to the bottom of this extraordinary situation,” Scanlon said. “The time has come to start an impeachment inquiry because the American people deserve to know the truth and to have the opportunity to judge the gravity of the evidence and charges leveled against the president.”

Neither side is getting help from House Republicans, who despite the abdication of Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who came out in favor of impeachment over the weekend, remain opposed to any additional investigation.

“Here we go again — the theater is open,” said Rep.

Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, at the outset of Tuesday’s hearing. He proceeded to blast Nadler for abusing his subpoena power to make unreasonable demands of the White House and witnesses to “get a headline.”

Democrats continue to hold out hopes, albeit diminishing ones, that they can secure testimony from Robert Mueller. Talks between the special counsel’s staff and House Democrats continued to grind along this week, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Mueller’s team is questioning the timing and format of possible testimony, including how much of any hearing would take place in public rather than behind closed doors, they said.

Impeachment advocates are also increasingly butting heads with their own leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who holds the ultimate decisionmaking power over her caucus’s strategy and has consistently warned against the divisiveness of impeachment. Several members of the California Democrat’s own leadership team confronted her in private Monday night with arguments in favor of beginning an inquiry, only to be gently swatted down with calls to stay the current course.

“Candidly, I don’t probably think there’s any Democrat who probably wouldn’t in their gut say, ‘He’s done some things that probably justify impeachment,’ ” Pelosi’s top deputy, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said Tuesday. “Having said that — this is the important thing — I think the majority of Democrats continue to believe that we need to continue to pursue the avenue that we’ve been on, in trying to elicit information, testimony, review the Mueller report, review other items. If the facts lead us to broader action, so be it.”

Pelosi called a meeting for today to update it on the status and strategy behind the House’s investigations. And people involved in the investigations say that the speaker approved an escalation of tactics short of impeachment to try to turn the tables.

Nadler issued subpoenas from two more possible witnesses: Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director; and Annie Donaldson, McGahn’s chief of staff.