Democrats Prepare Lawsuit to Force McGahn to Testify

(Bloomberg) -- House Democrats planned to file a lawsuit Wednesday afternoon aimed at enforcing a subpoena for former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress.

“No one is above the law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, citing the planned litigation in a memo to Democratic colleagues.

The move is significant as part of an effort to revive congressional investigations of President Donald Trump that have been stymied by the White House’s refusal to let current and former officials appear. It also comes as a growing number of House Democrats have called for opening impeachment proceedings against Trump, a move resisted so far by Pelosi

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland said at the National Press Club on Wednesday that he backs Pelosi’s position “that the time for impeachment may come.”

Invoking the Democrats’ efforts to seek backing in the courts for congressional subpoenas, Cummings said, “The day that any administration disobeys a court order, then I’m for impeachment because, you see, by that time, we’re in trouble. We’re in big trouble.”

McGahn, a key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference and potential obstruction of justice by Trump, was subpoenaed in April to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Even though McGahn left the White House in October, he acquiesced to a White House instruction not to appear under a broad assertion of immunity.

The full House voted to hold McGahn in civil contempt on June 11.

Last month, the Judiciary panel filed suit asking a federal court to force the release of grand jury information from Mueller’s investigation. The suit explicitly cited Congress’s impeachment authority.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, David Glovin

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