Shit's goin' down for real in the House of Representatives. Miss Nancy is still pumping the brakes on impeachment, but the committee chairs are full speed ahead, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip James Clyburn champing at the bit to start kicking Trumpland in the nuts over its illegal stonewalling. Yes, we know it looks like nothing's happening as the White House gives a giant middle finger to Congress. But it is!

Here, look:

Contempt Motion for Barr and McGahn: Full House

The House Judiciary Committee has already voted to hold Bill Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with committee subpoenas. And on June 11, the entire House will vote to hold Bill Barr and Don McGahn in civil contempt -- as opposed to criminal, which the Barr Justice Department would obviously decline to prosecute. So clever of Nancy Pelosi to have shepherded through that rule change at the beginning of the session speeding up the process by allowing a majority of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, that is Speaker, Majority and Minority Leaders, and Majority and Minority Whips, to bring contempt charges before the full House.

When the contempt resolution passes, the House will then sue in federal court to enforce its subpoenas, asking a judge to order Barr to let them see the entire unredacted Mueller Report and force McGahn to turn over his documents and testify about his time in the White House. McGahn may wish to avoid spilling the beans on camera about all the times Donald Trump obstructed justice, but that is not how law goes. So sorry for your bad luck!

Contempt Motion for Barr and Ross: Oversight Committee

Yesterday Elijah Cummings sent letters to Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross informing them that the Oversight Committee will vote to hold them in contempt this Thursday if it doesn't get subpoenaed testimony and documents regarding the White House's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. As Wonkette's own Jamie Lynn Crofts 'splained yesterday, Wilbur Ross was lying out his saggy ass when he testified that the citizenship question was added at the behest of the Justice Department to make the census "more accurate." A supine SCOTUS may refuse to acknowledge that Steve Bannon called up Ross and told him to add it after the White House read Thomas Hofeller's memo on how to disenfranchise brown people and entrench a minority party in power forever, but that doesn't mean Bill Barr wants to let Commerce Department employees testify on national television about the racist GOP seeking to rig the census.

This one's going to wind up in court, too.

Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson Blow Off Judiciary Subpoenas

Today the White House announced it would not "allow" Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson to turn over documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee related to conduct described in the Mueller Report. Hope Hicks is Donald Trump's Widdle Hopey, what helped draft the bullshit letter saying the Trump Tower meeting was about bouncy Russian babies, and not sexxxy Hillary dirts. And Annie Donaldson was Don McGahn's right hand woman whose notes were quoted extensively in the Mueller Report.

In refusing to let the ladies testify, the White House is not asserting executive privilege, which has a clear legal standard that cuts against them. They're just gesturing vaguely toward privacy rights and insisting that the requested documents are the property of the government as they pretend to scratch their foreheads with both middle fingers at once. Waiting until five minutes before the documents are due to assert this "privacy" right is an especially nice touch.

Let's assume for the moment that these women, who no longer work for the White House, fall in line and refuse to give up documents from their time at the White House -- assuming they still have custody of them. Will they also refuse to testify as Don McGahn did? Hicks is scheduled to appear before Judiciary on June 19, and has already turned over some documents from her time on the Trump Campaign. Donaldson, who probably knows almost as much as Don McGahn, is scheduled to testify on June 24.

Safe bet this one winds up in a contempt hearing as well, if we don't skip right to impeachment, 'cause the natives are getting RESTLESS.

White House Lawyer Emmet Flood Nopes Out

We are still in the "Emmet is my friend" stage of the breakup. Soon enough, Trump will be shit-tweeting that he fired Flood's ass (false) and Flood was a whiny little bitch who was pissy about not getting the White House counsel's job (probably true). But for today, it's all happy endings.

Since Flood got passed over for Pat Cipollone -- the biggest asshole in Washington this side of John Bolton -- the writing has been on the wall. The Wall Street Journalpredicted his exit in March, saying that he'd done his duty to protect Trump from the Mueller Report. But we are old enough to remember that Flood's main qualification was his vaunted ability to protect the president in an impeachment hearing, since he'd parried Congress effectively as an advocate for Bill Clinton. And that show is just getting started! But sure, Poppy, he's leaving because it's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED vis-à-vis the Mueller Report.

TL, DR?

Congress is moving to shift enforcement of congressional Oversight to the courts, and probably moving inexorably toward impeachment. Also, Steny Hoyer, Elijah Cummings, and Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi are badasses who get shit done, and they all hail from Maryland.

Which just goes to show you!

[ CNN / Politico]

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