House to Vote on Empowering Nadler to Enforce Subpoenas Against Trump Administration

The House is planning to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would authorize House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to initiate court actions to enforce his subpoenas as part of his wide-ranging investigations into the Trump administration.

The resolution specifically mentions Attorney General William Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who both ignored subpoenas issued by the Judiciary Committee to testify. It also mentions the underlying materials relied on for former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The Democrat-controlled House backed off its plan to vote to hold Barr in contempt on Tuesday, following a deal reached between Nadler and the Justice Department to provide Congress with the underlying materials for the special counsel report.

Nadler said in a tweet Monday, “The House is still expected to consider H.Res. 430 tomorrow, a resolution authorizing the Committee to enforce its subpoenas in federal court”:

The vote on enforcing subpoenas comes after the committee hosted CNN contributor and former Nixon aide, John Dean, to testify on Monday. Republicans mocked the decision to bring in Dean, who was indicted for obstructing justice.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) drew laughter during his questioning of Dean, in which he accused Democrats of trying to raise the “ghosts of Christmas past.”

Meanwhile, a fight between Nadler and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) over beginning impeachment proceedings is intensifying, according to Politico.

According to a report, Nadler has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry, but the speaker has maintained it would backfire on Democrats since there is no support for impeachment in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Nadler argued that streamlining the different House investigations under an impeachment inquiry would make it easier to challenge the Trump administration in court.

However, Pelosi has argued for an approach of continuing to investigate Trump before any impeachment proceedings. She reportedly told Nadler last week, “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison.”