House Democrats Turbocharge Committee Probes Of Trump

[Shabibilicious]

House Democrats turbocharge committee probes of Trump

By Ginger Gibson and Karen Freifeld

,

Reuters•January 22, 2019

 

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on border security and the partial shutdown of the U.S. government from the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., Jan. 19, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

By Ginger Gibson and Karen Freifeld

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have quietly tweaked a rule on taking secret depositions that is likely to give a boost to their investigations of President Donald Trump, his personal finances and his administration.

The little-noticed change, made since the Democrats took over majority control of the House earlier this month, will let staffers of House investigative committees take testimony from subpoenaed witnesses without a lawmaker being present.

By eliminating complications with lawmakers' schedules, the change will let staffers work faster and range more widely, said former staffers and sources inside the committees that are launching several inquiries into Trump and his presidency.

The importance of this was underscored, legal experts said, when attorney general nominee William Barr indicated last week that he was unlikely to release the final report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to lawmakers in its original format.

Mueller has been probing for many months Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, any collusion between Moscow and Trump's campaign, and obstruction of justice. If Barr is confirmed and holds back on Mueller's report, the rule change may help House investigators rapidly replicate Mueller's work.

"Dropping the member requirement will give much more power to staff investigators in different committees, which will lead to increasingly dispersed and now unsupervised authority for investigations," said Kristina Moore, a managing director at FTI Consulting and a former investigator for the House Oversight Committee when it was chaired by Republican Darrell Issa.

"This change to the House rules represents a further expansion of the majority's oversight and investigations targets, for which everyone in the private sector needs to prepare," Moore said.

The government shutdown caused by a standoff between Trump and Democrats over his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall has been center-stage in Washington for weeks, but Democrats have been moving ahead on plans to probe Trump and his administration.

On Feb. 7, former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee, now chaired by Democrat Elijah Cummings. On the next day, acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is slated to testify to the House Judiciary Committee.

CHANGE FROM REPUBLICAN RULE

When the Republicans controlled the House, up until early January, a lawmaker from the committee that issued the subpoena had to be present for a witness deposition. That sometimes presented challenges, said current and former aides.

For example, when witnesses in New York were being interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee over the past two years, lawmakers had to travel with staff to conduct the questioning, one aide said.

Getting lawmakers to sit through long interviews of low-profile witnesses, even ones with valuable information, could also be difficult, the aide said.

The rule change was requested by the House Oversight Committee, said several congressional aides said. But it will also affect the work of other investigative panels, such as the Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

Andy Wright, former associate counsel to President Barack Obama, said the heads of the House investigative committees will be able to subpoena all the witnesses who gave grand jury testimony for Mueller.

"So now a subpoena for a deposition can be conducted by staff," he said. "More depositions in shorter time and fewer steps between request and contempt."

 

https://news.yahoo.com/house-democrats-turbocharge-committee-probes-trump-110530308.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index

 

One less step between stonewalling and transparency.  As always, just my opinion.

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

So much noise out there right now...further dividing the country....very sad IMM....

CL

[nstoolman1]

Yes, let's have the non accountable aids and staff do the important work.

Oh, wait. What do we need the Congress for if their not going to do their job? 

 

 

I have a solution.... Make the people come to Washington and do their deposition.

Don't want to come?  Arrest their a** and bring them anyway.

Don't want to testify? Hold them in contempt and arrest them.

Don't want to submit files and such? Go in to their offices and home and get it. 

Don't want to cooperate ? Charge them with contempt.

Now of course the Republicans did not have the b*lls to do this and were afraid but the Democrats will run with everything they can to

sling enough cr*p on the wall that it will look messy and people will be stupid and not see the writing on the wall. They will vote their sovereignty away and then cry when it does not go well for them. 

 

[Shabibilicious]

4 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

I have a solution.... Make the people come to Washington and do their deposition.

Don't want to come?  Arrest their a** and bring them anyway.

Don't want to testify? Hold them in contempt and arrest them.

Don't want to submit files and such? Go in to their offices and home and get it. 

Don't want to cooperate ? Charge them with contempt.

 

Those are all great ideas, nstoolman.  Of course in all fairness, witnesses forced to travel to give a statement should be afforded travel expenses, food, lodging and loss of wages.  When you consider congress getting paid to sit on their asses the last 33 days for doing nothing, paying for a witness's time seems appropriate.  As always, just my opinion.    

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Those are all great ideas, nstoolman.  Of course in all fairness, witnesses forced to travel to give a statement should be afforded travel expenses, food, lodging and loss of wages.  When you consider congress getting paid to sit on their asses the last 33 days for doing nothing, paying for a witness's time seems appropriate.  As always, just my opinion.    

 

GO RV, then BV

You really think Trump is a moron.?

[Shabibilicious]

3 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

You really think Trump is a moron.?

 

Your word not mine.....He did get elected after all, so to refer to him as a moron would not reflect kindly on the mindset of his rabid base of voters.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

3 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Your word not mine.....He did get elected after all, so to refer to him as a moron would not reflect kindly on the mindset of his rabid base of voters.  

 

GO RV, then BV

Is there a reason you didn't answer my question?

[nstoolman1]

He may not tell us if Trump is a moron but he definitely feels the people that voted for him are. 

 

 

[Shabibilicious]

7 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Is there a reason you didn't answer my question?

 

Of course I answered it.....What part of "Your word not mine" did you not understand?

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

15 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Of course I answered it.....What part of "Your word not mine" did you not understand?

 

GO RV, then BV

That's the difference between you and I. You live in a gray area, where nothing is black-and-white or right or wrong. Whereas for me a simple yes or no would have sufficed.

[Shabibilicious]

2 hours ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

That's the difference between you and I. You live in a gray area, where nothing is black-and-white or right or wrong. Whereas for me a simple yes or no would have sufficed.

 

Black and white, right or wrong.....You've stated in the past that Trump has personal faults but you voted for him anyway, how is that not living in a gray area?    Anyway, I digress from this sidetrack, the path to getting to the bottom of things quicker just got turbocharged, which is a good thing.

 

GO RV, then BV

Edited January 24, 2019 by Shabibilicious

[coorslite21]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Black and white, right or wrong.....You've stated in the past that Trump has personal faults but you voted for him anyway, how is that not living in a gray area?    Anyway, I digress from this sidetrack, the path to getting to the bottom of things quicker just got turbocharged, which is a good thing.

 

GO RV, then BV

 

We agree once again......let's get to the answers  and move ahead as a country.....I can accept anything factual.....can you?......What if the Mueller report exposes the entire corruption of the Obama DOJ....and nothing much on the Trump/Russia collusion.....?

 

We all are bombarded daily with Trumps short comings....even has small hands they tell us.......

 

Will you be able to face the truth if it doesn't fit your concept of reality?

 

CL

[Shabibilicious]

2 minutes ago, coorslite21 said:

 

We agree once again......let's get to the answers  and move ahead as a country.....I can accept anything factual.....can you?......What if the Mueller report exposes the entire corruption of the Obama DOJ....and nothing much on the Trump/Russia collusion.....?

 

We all are bombarded daily with Trumps short comings....even has small hands they tell us.......

 

Will you be able to face the truth if it doesn't fit your concept of reality?

 

CL

 

Though I don't appreciate the "concept of reality" jab at the end of your statement.....I WILL absolutely accept the report Mr. Mueller ultimately provides as factual/truthful.  It will be interesting to see if other posters possess the humility and intellectual honesty to do the same.

 

GO RV, then BV 

[coorslite21]

17 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Though I don't appreciate the "concept of reality" jab at the end of your statement.....I WILL absolutely accept the report Mr. Mueller ultimately provides as factual/truthful.  It will be interesting to see if other posters possess the humility and intellectual honesty to do the same.

 

GO RV, then BV 

 

We all have our own realities....myself as well...the comment was not intended to be a jab......my apologies if it came across that way......CL