The House passed a resolution 229-191 Tuesday that authorizes committee leaders to try to take the Trump administration to court over unanswered subpoenas.
Democrats labeled the bill a civil contempt resolution, but the legislative language does not include “contempt.”
It’s a move by Democrats to try to hold the Trump administration accountable in court for what they believe has been significant stonewalling in the face of a broad array of House investigations.
Democrats are threatening to hold uncooperative Trump administration officials and former officials with a criminal contempt citation if they continue to fail to cooperate, but they refrained from taking that step Tuesday.
“This is not political, it’s constitutional. It’s about separation of powers,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said before the vote. “It’s about responsibility, it’s about accountability.”
“The House is exercising its responsibility to uncover all the facts and discover the truth on behalf of the American people,” he added.
The measure is aimed at Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Barr has refused to appear before the Judiciary Committee to testify and has not provided all of Congress with the unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign.
McGahn has refused to provide either testimony or documents the Judiciary Committee has requested.
Hoyer said Barr showed “evidence of contempt,” by refusing to testify or provide the unredacted report although the report redactions are required by law.
The case now moves to court, where a judge will decide whether the Trump administration must cooperate. Democrats say they will seek expedited consideration, although in the past such cases have dragged on for many months.
Republicans opposed the resolution and labeled it a charade. Democrats, they argued, are afraid to hold either McGahn or Barr in criminal contempt, or to open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“It is an impeachment effort in everything but name,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said.
Democrats, they said, are refusing to accept the Mueller report, which did not find Trump guilty of collusion.
“At its core it’s just a desperate attempt to re-litigate the Mueller investigation,” McCarthy said.
But Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said it would allow committee leaders to go to court over unanswered subpoenas without having to vote on it each time.
“When a congressional committee issues an subpoena, it is not optional,” Nadler said.
Both Republicans and Democrats over the past few decades have voted to allow lawmakers to pursue subpoena cooperation in court.
Republicans, for example, took Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder to court to force him to turn over documents related to the botched “Fast and Furious” gunwalking operation.
Typically, judges have sided with the legislative branch. The Justice Department was eventually forced to turn over the “Fast and Furious” documents, but it took months for the case to get resolved.
