Page 640 - Contempt News Today

I think he has some legal issues here. he no longer controls the justice department. congress can now seek justice department enforcement of the subpoenas. that means you cant drag it out for as long as they did when trump was in office. some people might face the prospect of being penalized in some way, even locked up for contempt, which has happened in the past. he is on a weak side here. he will make the argument that executive privilege applies. im not a lawyer, but in some of the cases its ...

Indeed, hold somebody in contempt and then fine them as long as they remained in contempt and it could get quite expensive for somebody who didnt comply. im not sure, pam, why the house isnt getting its act together and making these things very effective when they do subpoena them. >> that was cnn contributor and former nixon white house counsel john dean speaking with our pam brown. u.s. health experts are cautiously optimistic that the country may be turning a corner on the pandemic. hospita...

Faster. see, in the past especially when trump was in the white house and the doj more or less answered to him, what congress would do when they were trying to enforce the subpoena is first go to court, try to get a court order and then require the person to appear. and then if they didnt appear try to get the court to hold them in contempt. theres a way to bypass that. congress can go directly to the department of justice and say, look, this person was lawfully served with a subpoena. they eith...

>> so how is the justice department poising itself at this point since were talking about house select committee. >> right. so if they decide, any of these people who have been subpoenaed not to cooperate, and, therefore, are held in contempt or of congress, congress then in a criminal contempt context go the justice department and says prosecute these guys. we want to bring them to court and charge them with obstruction of the subpoena, and if the justice department agrees to do that, then the ...

Effect. but lets be clear. this law is contrary to supreme court precedent, and it is a complete outrage that the fifth circuit has reinstated it, perhaps only temporarily, but thats now the state of play. abortion is now effectively illegal in texas again, and it will remain that way until the fifth circuit acts otherwise. >> kirsten? >> yeah. i mean whats the commonality of everything were talking about here? its total contempt for the law, right? its like dont have to respond to subpoenas, do...

Subpoena be criminally prosecuted? >> yes, it is a federal crime to contempt, defy a congressional subpoena without justification. the way this works is that congress will have to work to hold the person in contempt and refer the case to the justice department. not up to congress ultimately. its up to doj. up to merit garland. this provision has not been enforced. for 50 years. both parties had all four times, doj declined to prosecute. so will garland go with that bizarre tradition or recognize...

>> the criminal referral, elliot, though, after the house would vote, it would require -- merrick garland would have to sign on to it. merrick garland would then have a decision to make about whether or not he would try to enforce it, correct? >> yeah, he would, number one. then number two, when it went to the u.s. attorneys office in washington, d.c., they would have to convene a grand jury so that would take a bit of time, too. thats partly why i am making the case for doing both at the same t...

Weve gone through this drill recently with don mcgahn when he was white house counsel. he decided to litigate it. he successfully it gaited it and only because he agreed to settle and compromise did they get him before the house judiciary committee but that left the law in a mess. the sort of -- the court of appeals, their three-judge panel, says the house has no statute to base a civil action on to enforce a subpoena, unlike the senate, which does have such a law. the house has done nothing abo...

As you know, the former president has made it clear he no longer even sees january 6th as a thing. saying this week, the real insurrection was on election day. and last night on fox, he made his contempt plain for those who have tried and failed to hold him accountable. >> you had fake impeachments, two fake impeachments where the republicans were great. i have to say, they stuck with us. the whole thing was fake. and i had to survive. and to survive, you had to be tough and you had to be out th...

Congress can and should do. >> what does that look like? >> so inherent contempt powers of the congress have always existed under your constitution. the powers have been largely dormant for the better part of the last 90 years. myself, ted lieu, val demings, a group of us on the house judiciary committee who again experienced the stonewalling of the trump administration first happened a year and a half ago proposed changing our rules to codify and authorize the use of inherent contempt. inherent...