House Judiciary Committee Democrats announced Wednesday the committee has issued a subpoena to acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan related to President Trump’s alleged promise to pardon him for actions taken to reduce the illegal immigrant surge along the southern border.
“The dangling of pardons by the President to encourage government officials to violate federal law would constitute another reported example of the President’s disregard for the rule of law,” Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said in a statement.
The New York Democrat said the pardon investigation would be added to an overall impeachment inquiry he claims to be conducting, although the House has not voted to authorize an impeachment inquiry.
The subpoena orders McAleenan to testify before the Judiciary Committee and to produce documents and materials related to the matter.
Nadler is seeking in particular all documents related to two meetings between McAleenan and President Trump on March 21 and April 5.
Trump, according to Nadler, citing media reports, “reportedly discussed” pardoning McAleenan if he proceeded with building a southern border wall despite legal obstacles, or taking action to block illegal immigration by claiming to judges there wasn’t enough capacity to allow them into the country.
“Ordering government personnel to violate the law is arguably a violation of the Constitution’s Take Care clause, while offering a pardon to encourage an officer of the U.S. government to undertake an illegal action appears on its face to be an unconstitutional abuse of power,” Nadler explained in a memo provided to the media.
According to White House aides, Trump was joking when he offered to pardon McAleenan.
Nadler said a pardon offer surfaced in the Mueller report on alleged Russia collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign.
“Special Counsel Mueller’s Report identified multiple instances where the President “in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.” Nadler’s memo states.
“This included the President — both publicly, privately, and through is attorneys — suggesting the possibility of pardons to his former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen in the hopes of discouraging both men from cooperating with law enforcement or the Special Counsel’s office.”
House Democrats are increasingly lining up in support of impeaching President Trump, which would require a majority vote of about 218 lawmakers.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not support impeachment and told Democrats in an August conference call “the public isn’t there on impeachment.”
