On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated that the committee should “consider” using and “may have to” use its inherent contempt power to levy fines to get counterintelligence information.
Schiff said, “[W]e were getting counterintelligence briefings up until when Comey was fired, and then it stopped. And that really is a violation of the legal requirements. You know, the remedies that we have are really the same as the Judiciary Committee, and the same as the Ways and Means Committee. They’re violating the statute. We can enforce it in court, but that takes time. That really doesn’t necessarily change in an impeachment proceeding, where they can fight us likewise. But there is another remedy that I think we really need to consider that may be even quicker than an impeachment proceeding or the court proceeding, and that is reviving Congress’ inherent power of contempt, something we utilized up until the 1930s, where we effect — in effect, do our own judicial proceeding in the Congress, have a little mini-trial in the Congress, and hold people in contempt and responsible and compel their production without even going to court. Now, it used to be we imprisoned people, but we could also fine them $25,000 a day until they comply, or some other number. That may be an even swifter remedy, if we need to embark on it, and we may have to.”
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