Judges revive House lawsuit for McGahn testimony
WASHINGTON >> A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday revived House Democrats’ lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before a congressional committee, but left other legal issues unresolved with time growing short in the current Congress.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-2 in ruling that the House Judiciary Committee can make its claims in court, reversing the judgment of a three-judge panel that would have ended the court fight.
The matter now returns to the panel for consideration of other legal issues. The current House of Representatives session ends on Jan. 3. That time crunch means “the chances that the Committee hears McGahn’s testimony anytime soon are vanishingly slim,” dissenting Judge Thomas Griffith wrote. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson also dissented.
A separate case in which the House is suing to stop the Trump administration from spending billions of dollars that Congress didn’t authorize for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border also was returned to a lower court.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration would continue to seek dismissal of both cases.
“While we strongly disagree with the standing ruling in McGahn, the en banc court properly recognized that we have additional threshold grounds for dismissal of both cases, and we intend to vigorously press those arguments before the panels hearing those cases,” Kupec said.
The administration could eventually appeal the outcomes to the Supreme Court.