A powerful House committee will not oblige acting Attorney General Whitaker after he demanded a subpoena threat hovering over his expected testimony Friday be put on ice or else he would not show up.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a brief letter to Whitaker early Thursday evening to respond to one he had sent earlier in the day.
“Earlier today, I received a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, seeking ‘a written assurance … that the Committee will not issue a subpoena to the Acting Attorney General on or before February 8.’ Absent such an assurance, the Department tells us, you ‘will be forced to decline to participate in the hearing,'” Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote.
“If you appear before the Committee tomorrow morning and if you are prepared to respond to questions from our Members, then I assure you that there will be no need for the Committee to issue a subpoena on or before February 8,” Nadler said. “To the extent that you believe you are unable to fully respond to any specific question, we are prepared to handle your concerns on a case-by-case basis, both during and after tomorrow’s hearing.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Earlier in the day, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to prepare a subpoena for Whitaker that would only be used if he “refuses to answer legitimate questions,” including those on his conversations with President Trump regarding special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Republicans who opposed the resolution expressed confidence that Whitaker would appear Friday and said they were worried about the precedent a prepackaged subpoena might set for future witnesses.
Nadler also said during the markup he expected Whitaker to appear Friday, but was concerned about whether Whitaker would answer questions.
Whitaker received written questions in advance, allowing him to consult the White House on whether there were instances where Trump wanted to invoke executive privilege. However, Whitaker never responded to Nadler.
“The resolution does not cause the subpoena to be issued,” Nadler said Thursday before the committee passed the resolution. “I hope and expect that this subpoena will not be necessary — but unfortunately, a series of troubling events over the past few months suggest that we should be prepared.”
Diana Stancy Correll contributed.
